Lula announces ban on online betting and casinos in Brazil
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced on Friday a ban on sports betting and online casinos, nine days before the first round of the country's general elections.
Speaking at an event in Sao Paulo, Lula said online betting platforms, widely known as “bets” in Brazil, were driving families into debt and causing people to lose control of their finances.
“The casino is in the kitchen, it is in the living room and it is with the pensioner,” Lula said, warning that children could also gain access to betting platforms using their parents' cards.
Lula compared the spread of digital betting to the country's experience with crack addiction, arguing that online gambling had an even wider reach because it was constantly accessible through mobile phones and encouraged dreams of getting rich quickly.
The ban will take effect once the provisional measure is published in the Official Gazette, but Congress must approve it for the measure to become permanent. In 2025, federally authorised online betting platforms recorded about 25 million users and deposits worth 220.6 billion reais ($42.5 billion).
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