Eduardo Paes Promises to Shut Down Loterj and Ban Sports Betting in Rio de Janeiro

Eduardo Paes, running for governor of Rio de Janeiro, said he would eliminate the state lottery operator Loterj and prohibit sports betting in the state if elected. For high-risk payment companies, the relevant part is simple: Rio’s licensing model has already been treated as a regulatory shortcut, and Paes is now pitching himself as the person who will close it.

1. In a video posted on Thursday, 24/9, Paes accused Loterj of laundering money for militia groups and operating “a serviço do crime organizado” (“at the service of organized crime”). He said his plan is to extinguish the agency and ban sports betting in Rio de Janeiro if he wins the election.
2. The announcement came on the eve of a provisional measure that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) was expected to sign on Friday, 25/9, to prohibit betting companies from operating throughout Brazil. According to Globo Online, Paes’s move follows rising political pressure on the sector, which intensified nine days before the elections.
3. Paes blamed former governor Cláudio Castro for turning Rio into what he called a “paraíso das bets” in Brazil. Castro resigned from office in March 2026 and was declared ineligible by the Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (TSE) the following day.
4. He said people linked to jogo do bicho bought licenses for R$ 5 million to open online betting shops in the state, while the federal government charged R$ 30 million for the same authorization. In his telling, that price gap made Rio a route for companies trying to avoid federal regulation. The 2023 decree issued under Castro set the license at R$ 5 million for five years and required 5% of winnings to be paid to the state.
5. Based on those rules, at least four major betting operators obtained licenses in Rio and went on to operate across Brazil: Apostou RJ, BestBet, MarjoSports and PixBet. Paes also cited the removal of the geolocation requirement from registrations, which he said allowed Rio to credential bets from across the country without control.

The Ministry Público has already charged eight people for using jogo do bicho to buy Loterj licenses and launch online betting operations. The Supremo Tribunal Federal also stepped in: in a case reported by Justice André Mendonça, the court formed a majority to bar Loterj and the State of Rio de Janeiro from running lotteries and electronic games outside state territory or accrediting companies to operate in other regions.