Brazil bans fixed-odds betting and online casino games, with licenses set to expire 30 days after publication

Brazil has abruptly reversed course on its regulated online gambling framework. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed a provisional measure that shuts down fixed-odds betting, including sports betting and online casino games, which matters immediately for PSPs, acquirers, and banks that have been processing local volumes.

1. The measure was officially published on September 25 and covers both physical and online environments. Companies are no longer allowed to operate, offer, intermediate, or advertise fixed-odds betting, including services provided to people in Brazil by companies based abroad.
2. This overturns the framework created under Law 14,790, which Lula sanctioned in December 2023. That law introduced the federal licensing regime for fixed-odds betting and allowed operators to offer sports betting and online games.
3. For operators that already obtained federal authorizations, the timetable is tight. Existing concessions, permissions, and authorizations will expire 30 days after publication, and the government says there will be no refund of authorization fees and no compensation when the licenses end.
4. The shutdown plan gives customers until October 5 to withdraw their remaining balances voluntarily. From October 6, betting websites and apps are scheduled to become unavailable, and operators must provide financial institutions with information on the balances of remaining customers. Banks will then need to return those funds to customers between October 9 and 14.
5. New federal betting authorizations are prohibited, and applications that had not been decided when the measure was published are treated as closed. Advertising, marketing, and sponsorship are also banned, with existing physical and digital materials required to be removed within 10 days.

For payment providers, the operational point is simple: Brazil is not just restricting marketing, it is cutting off the rail. Financial institutions and payment companies will no longer be allowed to process betting transactions except those needed to close operations and return customer funds. On September 27, the Justice and Public Security and Finance ministries said a joint task force had already taken down 506 websites suspected of offering unauthorized betting.