Brazil betting law timeline (2018–2026)

How did Brazil’s betting law change from 2018 to 2026?

Brazil went from legalizing fixed-odds betting to banning it in eight years. Law 13,756/2018 created sports betting as a federal lottery type, Law 14,790/2023 added online casino games and a licensing regime, the licensed market opened on January 1, 2025, and Provisional Measure (Medida Provisória, MP) 1,394/2026 banned both on September 25, 2026. As of October 1, 2026, the ban is in force but not yet final.

Timeline

2018–2023: legal on paper

Law 13,756 of December 12, 2018 created fixed-odds betting on “real sports-themed events,” where the possible winnings are fixed when the bet is placed, and gave the government two years, extendable by two, to regulate it. Law 14,790 of December 29, 2023 extended it to “virtual online-game events,” casino-style games whose results come from a random number generator, and set the licensing rules: companies based in Brazil with a Brazilian partner holding at least 20% of the capital, five-year authorizations and a fixed fee of up to R$30 million covering up to three brands.

2024: the transition

From October 1, 2024, only companies that had applied for a license could operate. By December 10, 2024, 71 of the 114 applicants had been cleared to pay the R$30 million license fee, Agência Brasil reported.

January 1, 2025: the licensed market opens

From January 1, 2025, only SPA-authorized companies could operate nationally, each authorization covering up to three brands, all on “.bet.br” web addresses, according to the SPA. When the ban came, the SPA’s list showed 85 authorizations held by 82 companies and covering 188 brands. The SPA’s report on 2025 gives the scale:

• 25,245,319 people (unique CPF taxpayer numbers) placed bets with licensed operators.
• Gross gaming revenue, what operators kept after paying prizes, was about R$36.96 billion.

Rules for players and advertising

Licensed betting came with strict rules, set by Law 14,790/2023 and SPA ordinances:

• Who could bet. Adults 18 and over; operator staff, athletes, referees and people diagnosed with a gambling disorder were barred.
• Identity. Facial recognition with a liveness check at sign-up and for withdrawals; one account per brand.
• Money. Only Pix, bank transfer or debit or prepaid card, to and from an account in your name, with no cash, credit cards or crypto; withdrawals within 120 minutes.
• No bonuses. Operators couldn’t give advances, bonuses or other incentives to bet.
• Games. Online games had to be certified by SPA-accredited labs, with a theoretical return to player of at least 85%.
• Limits. Deposit, loss and time limits and self-exclusion tools.
• Advertising. “18+” and addiction warnings were required, and ads couldn’t target minors, promise easy wins or use celebrities to suggest success.

Bolsa Família, BPC and the Supreme Court

On November 13, 2024, STF Justice Luiz Fux, rapporteur of challenges to Law 14,790, ordered “immediate special protection measures” to stop money from social programs such as Bolsa Família and the Continuous Cash Benefit (Benefício de Prestação Continuada, BPC) from being used to bet; the full court endorsed the order unanimously the next day. The Central Bank had found that Bolsa Família beneficiaries spent R$3 billion on bets in August 2024.

SPA rules published on October 1, 2025 barred beneficiaries from betting. On December 19, 2025, Fux partly suspended the duty to close their existing accounts while keeping the ban on new ones; government statements in August 2026 described existing accounts being closed, and as of October 1, 2026, how the two fit together is unclear. In August 2026, Finance Minister Dario Durigan said more than 5 million people were barred from betting, about 3 million of them Bolsa Família or BPC beneficiaries.

Taxes: MP 1,303/2025 lapsed, Complementary Law 224/2025 passed

Operators paid 12% of their gross gaming revenue to legally designated public destinations, on top of ordinary company taxes. MP 1,303/2025 would have raised that share to 18% but lapsed on October 8, 2025. Complementary Law 224/2025 set it at 15%, phased in from April 1, 2026 (13% in 2026, 14% in 2027 and 15% from 2028), and made banks and payment institutions that keep processing payments for unlicensed operators after formal notice, and anyone who advertises those operators, jointly liable for their taxes.

For players, Law 14,790 taxed annual net winnings at 15% above the first bracket of the income-tax table; our guide to betting taxes in Brazil explains what the ban means for 2025 and 2026 winnings.

2026: crackdown, prediction markets and the ban

• Illegal operators. Law 15,358/2026, the Legal Framework for Combating Organized Crime, made banks block unlicensed operators’ accounts and share fraud data; Decree 13,033/2026 and CMN Resolution 5,320/2026 require the block within 24 hours of an SPA notice, with the funds open to forfeiture.
• Prediction markets. National Monetary Council (CMN) Resolution 5,298/2026 banned derivatives tied to sports, online games and political, electoral, social, cultural or entertainment events, including contracts traded abroad and offered in Brazil; see whether prediction markets are legal in Brazil.
• The ban. MP 1,394/2026 banned fixed-odds betting and its advertising and set out refunds, and Decree 13,128/2026 created its inter-agency enforcement committee; see our explainer on the 2026 betting ban and how to get your money back.

What’s still pending

As of October 1, 2026:

• Supreme Court. Petitions filed on September 28, 2026 by the National Association of Games and Lotteries (ANJL) and the Brazilian Institute for Responsible Gaming (IBJR), asking Fux to suspend the MP, had no ruling yet.
• Congress. The MP lapses unless Congress approves it by November 23, 2026, a deadline that can be extended once by 60 days; from November 9 it locks the voting agenda. If it is extended, our estimate of the final deadline, allowing for Congress’s year-end recess (December 23 to February 1), is March 4, 2027. If the MP lapses or is rejected, Congress has 60 days to regulate, by legislative decree, the legal relations formed while it was in force; otherwise, they remain governed by the MP (Constitution, art. 62).
• Crimes bill. PL 5,477/2026, which would punish operating fixed-odds betting with 4 to 6 years in prison, had not been voted on.

The bottom line

In eight years, Brazil went from legalizing sports betting to licensing a market used by 25.2 million people in 2025, then banning fixed-odds betting outright on September 25, 2026. As of October 1, 2026, the ban is in force, but whether it lasts depends on the Supreme Court and on Congress.

This timeline is general information as of October 1, 2026, not legal or tax advice.