Lula Says Ending the Bets "Is a Decision" as Operators Warn Clubs Their Sponsorships May End

Brazil's president told a campaign rally that he will "end the bets", and a provisional measure is reported to be due on Friday. Licensed operators have started notifying football clubs that shirt deals worth more than R$1 billion could be terminated, while the government is still choosing between a full ban and an online-casino ban.

• President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva told a campaign event in Rio de Janeiro on 23 September: "This is not a war, it's a decision: we are going to end the bets," according to CNN Brasil
• A provisional measure (MP) is expected on Friday 25 September, according to O Globo columnist Lauro Jardim, but its content has not been settled: one version bans online casinos and fixed-odds sports betting, the other online casinos only
• Superbet and Esportes da Sorte have notified clubs that sponsorships may be terminated, UOL reported; 13 of the 20 Série A clubs carry a betting shirt sponsor, with contracts worth more than R$1 billion
• Operators paid R$30 million each for 85 federal authorisations, R$2.5 billion in total, and the government is ruling out refunds, according to O Globo and SBT
• An AtlasIntel poll for Bloomberg found 75% of Brazilians support banning online betting platforms; opposition candidate Flávio Bolsonaro says online casinos should end but sports betting should stay

"We Are Going to End the Bets"

Lula's clearest statement yet came at a campaign event with artists at the Fundição Progresso in Rio on the evening of 23 September. "I will take immense pleasure in ending the bets," he said, according to CNN Brasil's transcript, in a translation of the Portuguese. "Now along comes the bet, which offers no entertainment to anyone, and finances the clubs with poor people's money. It's the poor who bet, who get sick, who kill themselves because they're in debt. This is not a war, it's a decision: we are going to end the bets." CNN Brasil reported that he framed it as a commitment if re-elected. The first round of the election is on 4 October.

A day earlier, opening the UN General Assembly, he said that "Brazil will not tolerate this business model". He met ministers at the Palácio da Alvorada on 23 September to discuss the measure; the meeting ended without an announced decision, and the Planalto has made no statement. BNLData reported that Finance Minister Dario Durigan met the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA) on 24 September after Lula asked for a full assessment of the budget impact of a ban.

Two Drafts, One Deadline

According to O Globo's Lauro Jardim, the MP is to be announced on Friday. Two versions are reported to be under discussion. One, backed by communications minister Sidônio Palmeira, would ban both online casinos and fixed-odds sports betting. The other, backed by Durigan, would ban online casinos and electronic games of chance only. SBT and CNN Brasil report that Lula prefers the full ban. Advertising limits and tougher penalties for illegal gambling are also reported to be under consideration. None of this is confirmed until the text is published, and earlier reporting that the measure would only restrict advertising has been overtaken.

The money is already moving. UOL reported, in accounts carried by Poder360 and InfoMoney, that Superbet has notified São Paulo and Fluminense and that Esportes da Sorte has notified its clubs of possible termination; Corinthians confirmed receiving a notice and described it as a formality. Betano has discussed the issue with Flamengo without a formal notice. Thirteen of the 20 Série A clubs have a betting shirt sponsor. The biggest clubs, including Flamengo, Palmeiras, Corinthians and São Paulo, signed a manifesto on 17 September titled "The End of Brazilian Football", which said: "End the regulated market and betting doesn't end. Football does."

Operators paid R$30 million, approximately $5.9 million, for each of 85 federal authorisations, a total of R$2.5 billion, according to O Globo, and SBT reported that the government rules out refunds. A government source told SBT: "It was a bet the companies made; they've already won a lot, and now they've lost." The sector paid R$9.95 billion in federal taxes in 2025.

A Ban Decided in a Campaign Will Be Tested in Congress and the Courts

A provisional measure takes effect immediately but lapses unless Congress approves it within 120 days, and a ban that voids licences sold for R$2.5 billion less than two years ago invites legal challenges on legitimate expectation and property grounds. The government appears to have accepted that cost; the refusal to refund outorgas suggests it expects to defend the ban rather than negotiate it. The harder question is the one the industry's association, the Associação Nacional de Jogos e Loterias (ANJL), keeps raising: that the illegal market will not shrink because the licensed one is closed. Its estimate that the unlicensed share could double to 82% is an interested party's projection, but Lula himself acknowledged the problem on 1 September, when he said that banning "60,000 clandestine bets isn't easy", according to Agência Brasil.

The Casino-Only Option Is Where Politics Converge

The two reported drafts map onto the campaign. Durigan's online-casino-only version is close to Flávio Bolsonaro's position, who said on 23 September that "online casinos have to end" while defending betting on "real games". That leaves sports betting, and the football sponsorship it funds, as the dividing line. A full ban would hit clubs immediately; a casino-only ban would remove online casino while leaving the shirts in place, the option the government was already reported to be weighing last week. With 75% support for a ban in the AtlasIntel poll, the politics favour a strong measure. The economics, and the clubs, favour the narrower one.

The text published on Friday, if it comes, will settle which way Lula has gone. For licensed operators, the notices to clubs show they are already planning for the worse outcome.