Brazil Gambling License (2026): Betting Ban, Casinos and Investor Guide

Reviewed by Luiz Eduardo da Silva, director of LegalBR. Updated on 5 November 2026. About 15 minutes to read.

The rules on gambling in Brazil changed abruptly on 25 September 2026, when Provisional Measure 1,394/2026 banned fixed-odds betting less than two years after the licensed market opened. Casinos, bingo halls and jogo do bicho remain illegal while their bill waits for a Senate vote, and only lotteries and a few traditional modalities stay lawful. No new betting licence can be obtained today. This guide sets out what is in force in late October 2026, what is still undecided and what it means for investors.

Gambling in Brazil in November 2026: where things stand

Brazilian law treats each form of gambling separately. Therefore, the right answer depends on the product: a lottery ticket, a sports bet, a slot machine and a bingo card sit under different statutes. The table below summarizes the position on 5 November 2026.

In practice, an investor looking at Brazil today can only enter the lottery segment through public concessions or accreditation, or supply services to lawful operators. However, the situation is fluid, because both the betting ban and the casino bill are still in Congress.

How the licensed betting market was built

Fixed-odds betting was first authorized in principle by Law 13,756/2018, which left the details to regulation. For five years, however, no rules were issued, and offshore websites served Brazilian players with no local licence. Law 14,790/2023 then created a complete framework, and the Ministry of Finance set up the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (Secretaria de Prêmios e Apostas, SPA) to license and supervise operators.

Under Law 14,790/2023, the main requirements for an operator were:

• A Brazilian company. The operator had to be incorporated under Brazilian law, with headquarters and management in Brazil (article 7).
• A Brazilian partner. At least 20% of the capital had to be held by a Brazilian partner (article 7, paragraph 1).
• A licence fee. The fixed fee for the authorization was capped at R$ 30 million (article 12), for a term of up to five years.
• Sports integrity limits. A controlling shareholder could not hold an interest in a professional sports club or football company (SAF).
• Payments only through regulated accounts. Prizes had to be paid by transfer to an account in the bettor’s name at an institution authorized by the Central Bank of Brazil.

As a result, most foreign groups entered through a new Brazilian company with a local partner, paid the fee and built compliance teams for anti-money laundering, responsible gaming and advertising rules. That investment is what MP 1,394/2026 now puts at risk.

What Provisional Measure 1,394/2026 does

A provisional measure (medida provisória) is a presidential act with immediate force of law, subject to later approval by Congress. MP 1,394 was published in an extra edition of the Official Gazette on 25 September 2026. It prohibits the operation, offer, intermediation and advertising of fixed-odds betting, physical or online, including by operators based abroad that target people in Brazil.

1. 25 September 2026: deposits stop

   New deposits into betting accounts were prohibited from publication, and no new authorizations may be granted. Pending applications became void.

2. 5 October 2026: last day for voluntary withdrawals

   Bettors could withdraw balances until 23:59. Open bets without a result within ten days of publication were voided and refunded.

3. 6 October 2026: sites and apps go offline

   Websites and apps had to become unavailable, including in app stores. Advertising and sponsorship had to be removed within the same ten-day window.

4. Refund of remaining balances

   Operators had two days to report balances by bettor CPF to banks, and banks then had seven days to return funds. Amounts that cannot be returned go to an account at Caixa Econômica Federal.

5. 25 October 2026: licences end

   Federal and state concessions, permits and authorizations are extinguished thirty days after publication, with no refund of the licence fee and no compensation (article 4).

The measure also revokes most of Law 14,790/2023 and the betting chapter of Law 13,756/2018. In addition, it bans betting advertising aimed at Brazilians in any medium and requires banks, payment institutions and the Pix system to reject betting transactions. Sanctions include fines of up to 10% of the economic group’s revenue in Brazil, and refund failures carry a daily fine of R$ 200,000.

Lotteries are expressly preserved: the prohibition does not apply to other lottery modalities authorized by law (article 1, paragraph 2). The measure also creates an interagency enforcement committee coordinated by the Chief of Staff’s Office (Casa Civil), with the Ministries of Finance and Justice, the Federal Police, the Federal Revenue and the Central Bank.

What happens next: Congress and the courts

Under article 62 of the Constitution, a provisional measure remains in force for 60 days, extendable once for another 60. The count is suspended during the congressional recess, which starts on 23 December. Therefore, a final vote on MP 1,394 is not expected before early 2027, unless Congress moves faster.

As of 5 November 2026, the procedure stands as follows:

• Joint committee. Congress named the members of the joint committee (comissão mista) that must examine the measure, and nearly 100 amendments were filed, some of them proposing to keep sports betting and ban only casino style games. On 3 November the official record still listed the committee as awaiting installation, with no rapporteur named.
• Deadlines. The measure locks the agenda of the house examining it from 9 November 2026. Its initial term ends on 23 November 2026 and can be extended once by 60 days, with the count suspended during the recess.
• Supreme Federal Court. The leading case is ADI 8,027, filed by ANJL and IBJR, with related actions (ADIs 7,721, 7,723, 7,749, 8,024, 8,028 and 8,035) attached. On 26 October 2026, Justice Luiz Fux did not decide the injunction requests and called a public hearing, which was held on 3 November 2026 with 34 invited speakers, among them the plaintiffs, betting and sports entities, football clubs, the Attorney General’s Office, the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Ministries of Finance, Sports, Justice and Health. Most speakers opposed the measure, while the federal government defended the ban. A public hearing only informs the rapporteur: as of 5 November 2026 no decision on the injunction requests had been issued, and no date has been set.
• Lower courts and licences. An injunction that had let one operator keep running was suspended by the president of the Federal Regional Court of the 3rd Region on 9 October, and specialized press reported no injunction in force among the federal lawsuits filed by operators. The licences were extinguished on 25 October 2026, without compensation or refund of the grant fees.

Three outcomes are possible. First, Congress may convert the measure into law, with or without changes. Second, the measure may lapse or be rejected; in that case, Congress should issue a legislative decree governing what happened while it was in force, and the status of licences already extinguished would likely be disputed. Third, the Supreme Court may suspend all or part of it. Investors should not plan on any of these outcomes without current legal advice.

Can you still get a gambling license in Brazil?

No. Since 25 September 2026, the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA) of the Ministry of Finance cannot grant new fixed-odds betting authorizations, and the authorizations already granted ended on 25 October 2026. There is no federal licence for land-based casinos or bingo either, because those activities remain illegal while PL 2,234/2022 waits for the Senate.

The only lawful routes left are lotteries. The federal lottery is operated by Caixa Econômica Federal, and states may run their own lotteries, usually through public tenders or accreditation processes that set their own corporate and capital requirements. Each state’s rules must be read individually.

If Congress or the Supreme Federal Court reverses or softens the ban, a new licensing round would probably start from the model that applied until September 2026. Under Ordinance SPA/MF 827/2024, that model required:

For a foreign group, the practical lesson is that any future licence will require a Brazilian company with clean corporate records, a documented ownership chain up to the ultimate beneficial owner and capital registered with the Central Bank. Those pieces take time to assemble, so they are worth keeping in order while the rules are decided.

Casinos, bingo and jogo do bicho: the PL 2,234/2022 status

Land-based gambling has been illegal in Brazil since 1946, and casinos remain closed in October 2026. The bill that would legalize them started in the Chamber of Deputies in 1991 as PL 442/1991. The Chamber approved it in February 2022, and it reached the Senate as PL 2,234/2022.

In the Senate, the Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ) approved the text on 19 June 2024, with Senator Irajá as rapporteur. The bill was put on the floor agenda several times and withdrawn. Then, on 17 December 2025, the Senate rejected an urgency request by 36 votes to 28, so the bill follows the ordinary procedure. As of October 2026, it is still awaiting a vote by the full Senate. Because the CCJ changed the text, an approval in the Senate would send it back to the Chamber of Deputies before presidential sanction.

The text approved by the CCJ in 2024 provides, among other points:

The same text creates a contribution on gaming revenue (CIDE-Jogos) of up to 17% of gross gaming revenue and a 20% withholding tax on prizes of R$ 10,000 or more. However, these figures reflect the 2024 committee text and may still change on the floor or in the Chamber. In addition, the political context changed after the federal government banned online betting, so any forecast of a vote date would be speculation.

Lotteries, horse racing and the criminal baseline

The starting point for any gambling activity not authorized by statute is the Criminal Misdemeanors Law (Decree-Law 3,688/1941). Article 50 punishes establishing or operating games of chance in a place open to the public, defined as games in which winning or losing depends exclusively or mainly on luck. Article 58 punishes operating jogo do bicho. Therefore, anything outside a specific authorizing law is presumed unlawful.

• Federal lotteries. Law 13,756/2018 governs the federal lottery modalities operated by Caixa Econômica Federal. MP 1,394/2026 does not touch them.
• State lotteries. In 2020, the Supreme Federal Court ruled that the federal government has no monopoly over lotteries and that states may operate them within federal rules (ADPF 492 and 493). Several states have since granted lottery concessions. However, state concessions for fixed-odds betting are extinguished by MP 1,394/2026.
• Horse racing. Bets placed through authorized racing entities follow Law 7,291/1984, a separate regime.
• Skill games. Games where skill predominates fall outside the article 50 definition. Nevertheless, classification is decided case by case, and a format sold as skill-based can still be challenged.

Taxes that applied to betting operators

Under the licensed regime, operators paid a levy on gross gaming revenue (GGR), meaning bets received minus prizes paid. The levy started at 12% under Law 14,790/2023. Then Complementary Law 224/2025, published on 26 December 2025, raised it in stages: 13% in 2026, 14% in 2027 and 15% from 2028, with the 2026 increase applying from April 2026.

Because the measure keeps tax and reporting obligations in force, former operators should close their accounts carefully. In particular, open tax periods, final returns and payroll obligations must be settled before the company can be closed or repurposed.

What the new rules on gambling in Brazil mean for investors

The practical consequences depend on where you sit in the value chain.

Former licensed operators

The Brazilian operating company still exists after its licence ends. Therefore, the group must decide whether to dissolve it or keep it for another lawful activity. Either way, several corporate steps follow:

• Amend the business purpose (objeto social) and economic activity codes at the Board of Trade (Junta Comercial) and the Federal Revenue, or approve a dissolution and liquidation.
• Update the foreign investment record in the Central Bank’s SCE-IED system for any capital return or liquidation proceeds. Our guide on the SCE-IED registration explains why this matters for repatriation.
• Settle labor, tax and supplier obligations, and keep the regulatory records for the five years the measure requires.
• Review the Brazilian partner’s position under the shareholders’ agreement, since the 20% local partner rule no longer has a regulatory purpose.

Suppliers, platforms and payment companies

Software providers, affiliates, marketing agencies and payment institutions with Brazilian clients in betting lose that revenue and face joint liability if they keep serving illegal operators. Contracts should be reviewed for termination rights, and any Brazilian subsidiary may need a new business plan.

Investors waiting for casinos

If PL 2,234/2022 becomes law, casino licences would require a Brazilian company with substantial paid-in capital and a resort project, and bids would follow regulation that does not yet exist. Groups preparing for that scenario usually limit themselves to market studies and site options until the law is enacted. When the time comes, the vehicle choice will matter; our guide on types of companies in Brazil compares the Ltda and the S.A., and our market entry guide covers partnerships and acquisitions.

Lottery opportunities

State lotteries remain a lawful entry point, usually through public tenders or accreditation processes run by each state. Requirements vary by state, so each procedure has to be read on its own terms.

Questions investors ask