Fernando Haddad and Tarcísio de Freitas both want to ban bets in Brazil, but only Congress can do it

São Paulo’s two main gubernatorial rivals have landed on the same anti-betting line: Fernando Haddad and Tarcísio de Freitas both say Brazil should end online betting. For PSPs and acquirers, the useful detail is simpler and less political: neither man, if elected governor, would have federal authority to actually ban the product.

1. On Monday night (18/8), Tarcísio said that “either Brazil ends bets, or bets end Brazil.” On Tuesday morning (19/8), Haddad took the same direction, arguing that the country needs to “seriously discuss banning this business.”
2. The constraint is legal, not rhetorical. The law that allows online betting in Brazil is federal, which means only the National Congress and the President of the Republic can prohibit the activity. A governor can make noise, but not rewrite the rulebook.
3. Haddad said that if elected, he would not license new betting products in São Paulo. Tarcísio framed his response differently, pointing to investment in mental health to treat gambling addiction; that measure is already in his government proposal submitted to the Electoral Justice.
4. The thing is, Tarcísio’s current stance sits uneasily with a decision made under his own administration: in January this year, he granted a license for lottery-style games in the state, and the service went live in July. For operators, that is the kind of gap between campaign language and licensing practice that matters more than a headline quote.
5. Haddad’s position carries its own tension. As former Finance Minister under Lula, he helped regulate bets in Brazil, and he used a radio interview on Jovem Pan News to argue that electronic betting was already liberalized under Michel Temer, while Jair Bolsonaro let the activity grow without taxes or clear rules. His point was straightforward: the government needed to tax something that was already legal.

Haddad’s summary of the sector was blunt: “I don’t think bets are worth having; I think Temer was wrong, Bolsonaro was wrong.” For high-risk operators, the practical takeaway is that Brazil’s federal framework remains the real choke point, while state-level rhetoric can still shape licensing appetite, enforcement mood, and the political case for tighter rules.