Amapá suspends state lottery tender to align the bid with Brazil’s betting MP

The Government of Amapá has suspended its tender for the state lottery concession after a clarification request forced a review of the notice. The problem is straightforward: the draft required the operator to run fixed-odds betting, but Brazil’s MP No. 1.394/2026 has now banned that activity nationwide, including state-level authorizations.

1. The Concorrência Eletrônica nº 037/2026-SECCOMPRAS, originally scheduled for Tuesday (27) at 8:30 a.m. Brasília time on the SIGA system, was suspended by notice published in the Diário Oficial do Estado nº 8.770 on Monday (26). The notice is signed by Luiz Cássio da Penha Chagas, coordinator of Bidding Processes at the Secretariat of State for Sustainable Procurement and Bidding (SECCOMPRAS).
2. According to the notice, the requesting authority reviewed a clarification request and concluded that the bidding documents need to be revised to align the process with MP No. 1.394/2026. The responsible body is the Amapá State Finance Secretariat (SEFAZ-AP), which handles process SIGA nº 00025/SEFAZ/2025.
3. The tender did not get a new date. The notice says only that, if the process needs to continue, it will be rescheduled later with fresh publication of the notice, as required by Law No. 14.133/2021. The documents are still available to interested parties, and on the National Public Procurement Portal (PNCP), Edital nº 037/2026 is now marked as “Suspensa.”
4. The clash is about fixed-odds betting. The draft concession covered 20 years and six lottery formats: passive lottery, numerical prognostics, specific prognostics, sports prognostics, exclusive instant lottery, and fixed-odds betting. The Terms of Reference required the concessionaire to operate all modalities included in the object, including fixed-odds betting.
5. MP No. 1.394/2026, issued on 25 September, prohibits the operation, offering, intermediation, and advertising of fixed-odds betting in Brazil. The prohibition also applies to authorizations granted by states and the Federal District, which means one of the mandatory elements of the tender is now barred by federal law with force of law.

The tender had already been through a few delays: it opened in May, with the first session set for 13 July, then was republished in the Diário Oficial nº 8.729 on 28 August. Another postponement followed in Diário Oficial nº 8.748 on 24 September, and the session was then reset for 27 October. The minimum fixed grant fee is R$ 2.6 million, listed as estimated in the PNCP, and the total estimated contract value is R$ 22.56 million.