Brazil bill would make sports betting operators fund SUS treatment for gambling addiction

Brazilian lawmaker Ana Paula Lima (PT-SC) has introduced Bill 4.761/2026, which would force fixed-odds betting companies to pay a monthly health surveillance fee to fund prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation for gambling disorder in the public health system, SUS. For PSPs and operators, the important part is simple: this is not just another ad rule, but a direct attempt to turn betting revenue into a dedicated health funding stream.

1. The bill was filed on Monday (22/7) and creates the Taxa de Fiscalização Sanitária sobre Apostas de Quota Fixa (TFS-Apostas), a monthly levy on the revenue of authorized operators. The initial rate is 2%, with a floor of 1% and a ceiling of 6%, and the Executive Branch could revise it periodically based on a technical report from SUS.
2. All money collected would go to the Fundo Nacional de Saúde (FNS), in a separate account called the Subconta de Enfrentamento ao Transtorno do Jogo. The bill says the funds would be used only for prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of people with gambling disorder, epidemiological surveillance, awareness campaigns, and training health professionals to identify and clinically manage addiction.
3. The policy case in the text leans on SUS data: the system recorded 10,553 appointments related to pathological gambling and betting addiction between January 2018 and May 2025, up 104% over the period, according to the Ministry of Health. In March 2026, the ministry also launched a free telehealth service for people with betting-related problems through the Meu SUS Digital app, with initial capacity for 600 appointments per month.
4. The justification attached to the bill argues that under the current split of betting revenue, the health sector receives only 1% of the 12% portion not allocated to operators, which Lima says does not match the real cost imposed on the public system. The bill also requires operators to submit annual aggregated, anonymized data on bettors classified as high risk for addiction to the Ministry of Health.
5. It would also add gambling disorder to the list of mandatory-reportable conditions for epidemiological surveillance, while preserving personal data confidentiality. Failure to comply would expose operators to the penalties already set out in Law No. 14.790/2023, without prejudice to other administrative, civil, and criminal sanctions.

The proposal lands alongside measures from Brazil’s Ministry of Finance to restrict betting advertising. For operators, the direction of travel is clear: more disclosure, more compliance burden, and a stronger case for the state to treat betting turnover as something that can be taxed not only for revenue, but for downstream harm management too.