Bets enter Brazil’s presidential debate as Lula is set to press Flávio Bolsonaro over flights paid by a betting owner

Betting is now part of the campaign script in Brazil, and not in a decorative way. According to Folha de S.Paulo, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva plans to use the next debate to push Flávio Bolsonaro on both the sector itself and his ties to lawyer Willer Tomaz, who has investments in betting and, according to the Federal Police, paid for flights used by the PL candidate.

1. Aliados of Lula want him to press Flávio for a concrete commitment on betting. The angle, according to Folha, is to force the senator into a clear position on betting while also exploring his relationship with Willer Tomaz, a friend of Flávio.
2. Lula signed Provisional Measure 1.394/2026 on 25 September, banning fixed-odds betting and online casinos in the country. He has linked betting platforms to at least part of the debt burden of Brazilian households, so this is not a side issue in his campaign frame; it is part of the economic story he is telling voters.
3. Tomaz is being investigated in a branch of Operation Sem Desconto, which looks into fraudulent deductions from INSS pensions and retirement benefits. The Federal Police suspects he transferred resources obtained in that scheme, and documents from the investigation were revealed by Folha on 16 October.
4. Tomaz is linked to Rede Loto, which operates BestBet. The company’s sole shareholder is Cathedral, registered in Madeira, Portugal. Rede Loto was the first betting operator authorized in Brazil, under a license from Loterj in May 2023. At the time, Loterj did not require disclosure of ultimate beneficial owners, which is why the names of Willer and his partner did not appear in the documents.
5. Flávio Bolsonaro has been trying to draw a line between sports betting and online casinos. On 23 September, in a livestream with Governor Tarcísio de Freitas and Mayor Ricardo Nunes, he said he was against gambling in general but defended keeping sports betting, which he described as more controllable. The next day he said he would ban online casinos, including jogo do tigrinho, if elected, while keeping fixed-odds sports betting.

The record is messy in a way the payments industry will recognize immediately: a sector that is being treated as both a policy target and a campaign talking point, while the licensing history includes one of the first authorized operators in Brazil, a Madeira-registered shareholder, and a dispute over what the state should permit, tax, or shut down.