Rico Melquiades says he is leaving Brazil for Portugal as Lula signs bet ban measure

Influencer Rico Melquiades said he will move to Portugal in October, on the same day President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed a provisional measure banning the operation of betting houses in Brazil. He did not say the move was connected to the new rules, but the timing matters for anyone tracking how Brazil is tightening the screws on bets and the people who promote them.

1. Rico said on social media that he will no longer live in Brazil and will move to Portugal starting in October. In his words: “Next month I will no longer be a Brazilian citizen. I’m going to live abroad, I’m going to Europe. [...] I will no longer reside in Brazil, I will live in Europe, in Portugal.”
2. The announcement came on Friday, September 25, the same day Lula signed a provisional measure that prohibits betting houses from operating in Brazil. Lula also sent Congress a bill that sets penalties for anyone who exploits, operates, or promotes the so-called bets.
3. Rico did not say that his relocation was caused by the government’s decision. That distinction matters: for PSPs, affiliates, and advertisers, the regulatory action and the personal move are separate facts, even if they landed on the same news cycle.
4. After announcing the move, Rico reposted reactions from internet users to the bet ban, including a comment saying “you’ll have to work,” directed at the influencer. He also posted a screenshot of a message he said he sent to actress Luana Piovani, who lives in Portugal, asking for apology and housing recommendations.
5. Rico and Piovani had traded public insults days earlier. The dispute began after Piovani shared a retraction published by the influencer about his employees.

For the high-risk crowd, the useful detail is not the celebrity drama. It is that Brazil is moving from messy growth to direct restriction: first the operating ban, then proposed penalties for operators and promoters. That is the kind of sequence that changes what affiliates, media buyers, and payment partners can do with the market.