The federal government has finalized a new decree to tighten the rules applied to betting companies in Brazil and sent the text to the Ministry of Finance for technical evaluation. Information cited by SBC News indicates the measure could be published next week.
Among the planned changes are a minimum five-second interval between bets, a ban on automatic bets and restrictions on the use of sound effects that encourage further bets.
The drafting involved areas of the Presidency of the Republic, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Justice, consumer protection, digital rights and communications. The rules expand the restrictions on advertising and marketing that took effect in July.
Government increases pressure on the betting sector
The new restrictions are part of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's government policy to reduce the impacts of online betting. The president has already criticized the sector's effects on families and low-income people.
Since the opening of the regulated market on January 1, 2025, the country has eliminated entry offers and incentives for bettors and moved forward with tax changes.
The Senate approved the gradual increase in taxation on gross gaming revenue, the GGR, from the current 12% to 18% by 2028.
The sector could also come under the Selective Tax regime starting in 2027, as part of the tax reform. The tax was created to apply to products and activities associated with impacts considered harmful to health or the environment.
Another proposal under discussion in Congress, PL 2.258/2026, seeks to prohibit the offering of online casinos in the country.
STF analyzes validity of 1946 ban
At the same time, the Federal Supreme Court is discussing whether the gambling ban established by Decree-Law No. 9.215 of 1946 remains compatible with the Constitution and Brazil's current economic environment.
In a hearing held on Wednesday (5), the court heard arguments about the relationship between the rule and principles such as free enterprise, economic order and constitutional freedoms.
The legislation was created decades before the expansion of internet betting and did not specifically address the digital market, which came to operate under its own federal rules.
Flávia Raphael Mallmann, a representative of the Public Prosecutor's Office of Rio Grande do Sul, said that the criminalization of gambling is related to a moral assessment about protecting citizens, and not to a matter of a criminal nature.
Gustavo da Silva, of the Public Defender's Office of the Union, pointed to possible effects of online betting on vulnerable groups.
Alessandra Martins Gonçalves Jirardi, a representative of the National Association of Mayors and Deputy Mayors, argued that the ban conflicts with constitutional principles such as freedom, pluralism and free enterprise.
She also highlighted that companies authorized by the federal government already offer betting legally in the country under the regulated regime.
