Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed an order on Friday banning fixed-odds betting, just over a week before the first round of the presidential election.
The decision ends the operation, advertising and promotion of betting platforms. The provisional order takes effect immediately but needs congressional approval within 120 days to remain in force. New deposits are banned, and users have until October 5 to withdraw their funds.
Lula said the move tackles families falling into debt. “I made the decision to take a hard, drastic and necessary measure,” he told journalists. “It’s like cancer, you take out the tumor, or the tumor will kill us.”
His government also drafted a bill to make promoting fixed-odds betting and using personal data to recruit bettors criminal offenses. Earlier this week at the United Nations, Lula accused the industry of “transforming addiction into profit” and “destroying homes.”
Polls suggest a ban has wide public support. Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, Lula’s main rival, accused him of an “electoral measure.” A 2025 study estimated betting costs Brazilian society 38.8 billion reais, about $7 billion, a year.