Workers’ Party files bill to ban online gambling in Brazil

Sixty-eight lawmakers from the Workers’ Party filed PL-1808/2026 to repeal Brazil’s Bets Law and ban online gambling nationwide. Deputy Pedro Uczai (PT-SC) submitted the bill to the Chamber of Deputies on Tuesday.

The draft law would void the rules that took effect on January 1, 2025, and would prohibit the ‘exploitation, operation, offering, availability, promotion, advertising, intermediation and processing of transactions related to fixed-odds betting’ across Brazil. Platforms with more than one million users would be required to remove gambling promotional content.

Penalties in the proposal include fines of up to two billion reais and prison terms of two to eight years, with harsher penalties when minors or criminal organizations are involved.

The filing carries no signature from President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva or other senior federal officials. Lula told reporters on April 8 he would shut down online betting if the decision were his alone and called what he described as ‘this uncontrolled gambling’ unacceptable, while noting congressional approval is required and that the industry’s financial ties to lawmakers complicate the politics.

A full repeal would affect government revenue. Receita Federal recorded 2.5 billion reais in gambling-related tax receipts in January and February 2026, a 236 percent increase from the same period a year earlier. Those collections fund social and welfare programs that are part of Lula’s reelection agenda.

The bill’s wording includes a ban on ‘processing of transactions,’ language that could cover payment rails and digital assets. Under the current regulated framework, licensed operators are prohibited from accepting cryptocurrency deposits. Removing the legal framework could push activity to offshore operators where crypto payments are more common.

The national industry trade body ANJL described the proposal as ‘a great risk,’ arguing regulation was intended to bring unregulated activity into a controlled environment. Uczai characterized the bill as an emergency public health measure and described betting as ‘a mechanism for capturing popular income.’

The filing places the Workers’ Party in an unusual position: the same government that helped create the Bets Law now fields a proposal for its full repeal. With Brazil’s general election set for October 2026, the bill aligns with the party’s ‘3B’ campaign message targeting bankers, billionaires and betting. Party leaders have not decided whether to formally support the repeal or use the proposal in campaign messaging.