Lula backs Brazil’s Security PEC as bets already fund part of the security budget

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva used a TV Globo interview on Thursday (27/8) to push PEC 18/2025 and say he would create a Ministry of Public Security if the Senate approves it. What he did not mention is that fixed-odds betting and online gaming already send a meaningful slice of their proceeds into public security funds — which matters if you sell payments into this market, because the political argument is already tied to the money trail.

1. Lula said he has been working the bill with Senate president Davi Alcolumbre (União-AP), House speaker Hugo Motta (Republicanos-PB), and senator Jaques Wagner (PT-BA). His line was simple: once PEC 18/2025 passes, he will create the Ministry of Public Security.
2. He framed the proposed ministry as a way to clarify who does what in public security: the federal government, the states, and the municipalities. That is the governance pitch. The payment angle is the less polished part: the current text sends 30% of the proceeds from fixed-odds betting, both physical and online, to the National Public Security Fund (FNSP) and the National Penitentiary Fund (Funpen), plus amounts recovered, seized, confiscated, or otherwise definitively forfeited from illegal sector activity.
3. According to BNLData, in 2025 sports betting and online gaming had already allocated R$ 614.368.595,12 to the FNSP and R$ 25.116.850,24 to the Fund for Structuring and Operating the Federal Police’s core activities (Funapol). For PSPs, that is a reminder that betting is not just a revenue line for operators and tax authorities; it is being wired into the financing of state institutions.
4. BNLData also says that, if the same calculation were applied to the legal beneficiaries in 2025, the potential revenue loss linked to the sector would be at least R$ 1,35 billion. In the first half of 2026, the FNSP had already received R$ 328,08 million and Funapol R$ 72,18 million, which is the sort of dependency policymakers rarely advertise in prime-time interviews.

For high-risk payment providers, the practical takeaway is straightforward: Brazil’s betting sector is now entangled with security funding, not just tax policy. When lawmakers debate the sector, they are not talking about a niche entertainment market; they are talking about a stream that already feeds public budgets.