Brazil's Operators Are Due to Hand Banks R$1.3 Billion Owed to Players as Amendments to the Ban Reach 48

Licensed operators must give their banks a per-player list of the R$1.325 billion still owed by Wednesday, and the government's own bulletin shows 86.2 million accounts holding less than R$1 each. Congress has pushed its amendment deadline past the election to 13 October, and Justice Luiz Fux has still not ruled.

• Brazil's former licensees must send their banks each player's balance and deposit account by 7 October, after the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting (SPA) put the unclaimed total at R$1.325 billion, approximately $255 million, across about 26.5 million bettors
• The SPA bulletin counts 86.2 million accounts holding between R$0.01 and R$0.99, worth R$15.5 million together, while Finance Minister Dario Durigan said 1% of bettors hold 80% of the money
• Of the 188 sites licensed until Monday, one was still online on Tuesday, and 13,241 illegal sites were sent for blocking between 25 September and 6 October
• Congress has received 48 amendments to Provisional Measure 1.394, four since withdrawn, and has extended the deadline for them to 13 October
• Operators' associations asked Justice Luiz Fux on 6 October to suspend the measure until the public hearing the Attorney General's Office (AGU) itself proposed; by Wednesday the dockets showed no ruling

The Money Owed to Players Moves From the Platforms to the Banks

With Brazil's licensed sites offline since Tuesday, the wind-down has reached the refunds. Article 8 of Provisional Measure 1.394 gives operators two days from the shutdown to send the banks holding their transaction accounts a list of each player's taxpayer number (CPF), amount owed and deposit account, and to send it to the SPA with proof the funds are there, on pain of a daily fine of R$200,000, approximately $38,500. The government's timetable sets the deadline at Wednesday 7 October.

Under Article 9, banks then have seven days to pay each player, preferably into the account the money came from, and must report to the SPA what they could not return. That residue goes to a dedicated account at the state bank Caixa Econômica Federal, under Finance Ministry supervision. Banks are to pay between 9 and 14 October, with Caixa taking over from 14 October, and operators remain liable for any shortfall.

Most of the Accounts Hold Almost Nothing

According to the SPA bulletin released on Tuesday evening, R$1.325 billion awaits return to about 26.5 million bettors. The tail is the striking line: 86.2 million accounts hold between R$0.01 and R$0.99, R$15.5 million in total, approximately $3 million, or about 1.2% of the sum. One person can hold accounts on several platforms, the bulletin notes.

Durigan said about 1% of bettors hold 80% of the balance and 3.4% hold 90%, according to Correio Braziliense. The ministry estimates that about 40 accounts still hold more than R$500,000 (approximately $96,000) each; Durigan said they were under investigation for possible money laundering, with findings to go to the Justice Ministry and the Federal Police. On Friday he had cited 48.

Only one of the 188 previously licensed sites was still operating on Tuesday, the government said, and between 25 September and 6 October the Justice Ministry's Ciberlab and the SPA sent 13,241 illegal sites for blocking, about 1,103 a day.

Congress Gives Itself Until 13 October

The amendment window that we reported would close on 1 October was extended that day. Citing "o princípio da participação plena e igualitária dos parlamentares" (the principle of full and equal participation of parliamentarians), the presidency of Congress moved the deadline past the general election to 13 October, according to the Congress record.

By Tuesday evening the record listed 48 amendments. Four have been withdrawn: Pedro Aihara (PP-MG) withdrew his slots-only rewrite and filed a new version the same day, and Senator Jorge Kajuru (PSB-GO) withdrew three on 2 October, including one refunding licence fees for the unexpired part of each five-year term. Deputies Marcos Braz, Julio Lopes, Aihara, Felipe Francischini and Julio Arcoverde, and Senators Marcos Pontes and Hiran Gonçalves, have filed amendments taking sports betting out of the ban, according to InfoMoney. That is also the position of Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, who faces President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in the 25 October run-off.

The proposals pull in different directions. One of Arcoverde's would ban betting only by those without a valid authorisation; another says the licences' extinction gives operators no right to a refund of the R$30 million fee or to compensation. Deputy Bebeto of Rio de Janeiro, filing on 5 October, would lift the ban while restricting advertising, including stadium naming rights, arguing that "a proibição ampla não elimina a demanda por apostas" (a broad ban does not eliminate demand for betting), InfoMoney reported. Tabata Amaral (PSB-SP) proposes public health service care for people harmed by gambling and their families, and Senator Alessandro Vieira (MDB-SE) filed eight, including ones headed "Prazo Banco Central" (Central Bank deadline) and "Responsabilidade Bancos Bloqueios" (bank liability for blocks). The committee has no chair or rapporteur, and the measure locks each chamber's agenda from 9 November.

Fux Is Asked Again, and Has Not Answered

The National Association of Games and Lotteries (ANJL) and the Brazilian Institute for Responsible Gaming (IBJR) have turned the AGU's reply against it. In a petition signed at 12:21 on 6 October and published by BNLData, they ask Fux to suspend the measure until the new public hearing the AGU asked him to consider, or at least to start the transition on 31 December, the date a prosecutor at the federal audit court proposed. They say operators' social media accounts were blocked overnight "sem nenhuma explicação" (without any explanation), and cite the Bet Legal observatory's count of unauthorised domains online, up from 1,195 on 24 September to 1,949 on 6 October.

At the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF), the ADI 7721 docket records a petition at 12:22 that day and shows the case sent to Fux. By Wednesday none of the cases against the measure showed a decision, and no opinion from Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet appeared. Meanwhile at least 36 of the 188 licensed brands had begun layoffs by 5 October, according to a survey by the industry group Amig reported by Folha de S.Paulo, as cited by BNLData.

The Refund Is a Large Operation Over a Small Sum

The bulletin undercuts the picture of families' savings trapped on betting sites. If 1% of bettors hold 80%, the other 99% share about R$265 million, roughly R$10 each, and banks will make millions of small transfers, some to accounts players may since have closed. The money that matters sits in a few hundred thousand accounts, about 40 of them under investigation. Durigan again said R$600 million to R$650 million a day now stays with families, but that is a deposit figure, and most deposits return to bettors as winnings: Treasury data obtained by BNLData put 2025 gross gaming revenue at R$36.9 billion, about R$101 million a day.

Congress Has Time the Licences Do Not

The extension runs to 13 October, but the licences are extinguished on 25 October, run-off day, and the committee still has no officers. The amendments sketch every outcome, from a sports-only market, which the presidential challenger backs, to a reversal with tighter advertising rules, to Arcoverde's proposal that operators get nothing back. The ANJL's petition concedes the timing problem: if the measure falls without a transition, it says, "não haverá mercado regulado a restaurar" (there will be no regulated market to restore). Any law that brings betting back will probably need a new licensing round.

Brazil is repaying players from a market it has closed while Congress drafts rules for one it might reopen. Until Fux or the committee acts, the refunds are the only part of the ban moving to schedule.