Brazil’s fixed-odds betting authorisations expire, ending 85 federal permits

Brazil's 85 federal authorisations for fixed-odds betting expired on 25 October, affecting almost 190 brands, according to a report. The authorisations had been due to end 30 days after provisional measure 1.394 of 25 September set their expiry, and the R$30m paid for each five-year licence is not being returned. The affected websites had already gone offline in early October, the report said.

The expiry coincided with the second round of the presidential election, which Lula won with 51.79% of valid votes, the report said. Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, who lost, had backed the end of the bets on 25 September, saying he had always opposed them, and at a press conference in Brasília on 7 October described the ban as an attack on legal certainty and on clubs and companies that had paid to enter the regulated market. The report said Senate records show the 2023 law was approved by symbolic vote, so his recorded no concerned a procedural request on closing the debate.

Supreme Federal Court (STF) justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered Flávio Bolsonaro to hand over his passports within 24 hours and barred him from leaving the country, in a case the report said concerns an alleged money-laundering link to online betting. According to the report, preliminary Federal Police checks indicated the senator was a beneficiary of funds from a company based in Madeira that is also under investigation. His Brazilian and diplomatic passports were cancelled. Police sources cited by local press said he had flown to the United States intending to enter on an Italian passport linked to citizenship obtained in 2023; the report said there was no formal exit record and no official confirmation of arrival.

Other critics of the measure include Romeu Zema, the Novo party's presidential candidate, who the report said spoke of populism and vote-buying, and São Paulo governor Tarcísio de Freitas, who supports ending the bets but disputes the timing. The report said 99 amendments have been tabled in Congress, five later withdrawn, and that most would preserve sports betting while excluding online casino. It said some deputies defend the regulated market but no national leader does.

Trade bodies ANJL and IBJR issued a manifesto on 25 September arguing that prohibition does not eliminate betting but removes protection for bettors, the report said. ANJL has filed direct action of unconstitutionality 8.027 at the STF. The report said the industry communicated extensively during almost two years of an open market but built little politically.

On 3 November STF rapporteur Luiz Fux is due to hold a public hearing with 26 bodies, including the government, the CBF, the broadcasters' association and 10 clubs, the report said. No decision has been taken on the request to suspend the measure. From 9 November the measure blocks the agenda of both chambers of Congress. The first 60-day term ends on 23 November and is automatically extended once, with suspension during the parliamentary recess, so the effective deadline falls in 2027. The joint committee designated on 30 September has not yet been installed.

Paulo Ganime, who heads a free-market association, said the most likely scenario is that the measure lapses, which requires no vote as long as nobody brings it to the floor, according to the report. If it lapses, the revoked articles of law 14.790 would return to force, but the authorisations that expired on 25 October would not revive on their own unless Congress regulates the relationships formed while the measure was in force by legislative decree, the report said.

The report said IBJR has asked whether operators would need to pay for a new authorisation if the market reopens, and that the measure does not say. It also reported association figures, described as partisan: more than 3,500 redundancies between 25 September and 7 October in a partial ANJL survey, 30,844 clandestine sites accessible as of 12 October according to its monitoring tool, and an IBJR-commissioned study estimating the illegal market's online share at between 38% and 44% in the first half of 2026, against 41-51% in 2025.