Lula meets only betting critics at Palácio do Planalto as Brazil weighs tighter rules or a ban

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva held a more than four-hour meeting at the Palácio do Planalto with religious groups, industry voices, health representatives, cultural figures, and consumer advocates to discuss the impact of online betting on Brazilian society. For high-risk payment providers, the important detail is not just the tone of the meeting, but who was not in the room: the regulated operators, the Ministry of Finance, and the regulator.

1. According to the report, ten entities opposed to the betting sector were invited, while no representatives from regulated industry associations such as the Associação Nacional das Casas Lotéricas e Jogos Legais (ANJL) or the Instituto Brasileiro de Jogo Responsável (IBJR) took part. The Ministry of Finance was also absent, as was the regulator itself.
2. The Ministry of Finance’s Secretaria de Prêmios e Apostas (SPA) is the authority responsible for regulation, authorization, and supervision of the market under Lei 14.790/2023. In its place, the ministry was represented only by executive secretary Rogério Ceron, and he did not speak in the four thematic blocks of the meeting.
3. The Casa Civil, through minister Miriam Belchior, presented figures on tax collection, enforcement, and self-exclusion that would normally come from the SPA/MF. With no licensed operator or sector association in the room, there was no technical rebuttal on compliance investment, identity verification, tax payments, or the practical effect that a ban could have on federal revenue, which is said to already be part of the 2027 federal budget design.
4. Lula said, “I did not want to make the decision only based on my own will and my ministers, but to hear what society thinks.” He also said the state needs to “take a more drastic decision,” adding that the decision on what to do with the sector was already “two-thirds decided” before the meeting.
5. The meeting was framed by the government as listening to “Brazilian society,” but the invitation list points in a narrower direction: building political cover for restrictive measures, not testing the current regulatory model with all relevant parties at the table. A final decision on prohibition or restrictions still depends on an internal meeting of ministers.

For PSPs, acquirers, and banks active in Brazil’s betting vertical, the useful signal is simple: the policy discussion is moving inside the executive branch, and the people who actually run licensed operations were not invited to shape it.