Brazils Lula bans online gambling ahead of presidential election

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has announced a ban on online gambling, just days before an election in which he is seeking a fourth term as the country’s leader.

The left-wing leader, who is running against the son of the incarcerated former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, signed a provisional order on Friday that “prohibits all sports betting and online casinos”.

The online gambling industry in Brazil was legalised in 2018 and has since been blamed for widespread household income losses due to addiction.

Flávio Bolsonaro accused his rival of playing politics, while Brazilian football teams said the ban could lose them income due to betting firms pulling their sponsorships.

Lula described the industry as a “cancer” in his announcement, adding that “either we remove the tumour, or it kills us”.

The move comes just over a week before the first round of Brazil’s presidential election. Recent polls have the 80-year-old leader almost neck-and-neck with the younger Bolsonaro.

Lula also separately signed a bill to establish criminal offences related to fixed-odds betting – the most common type of online sports betting.

Punters and bookies will have until 5 October to withdraw any existing funds from online betting accounts, while new deposits have been barred.

The new measures must receive congressional approval within 120 days to remain in force.

Lula acknowledged online betting was allowed under the former President Michel Temer’s administration but said that it had grown “without regulation under Bolsonaro’s management”.

He said in a statement on X that there were “no restrictions” particularly for preventing children and teenagers from accessing online betting.

“We won’t allow betting companies to profit at the expense of Brazilian families’ income and lives,” the president added.

Lula described how he had heard from families who had sold everything in their houses because of their gambling addictions.

Earlier this week at the UN General Assembly, Lula accused the industry of “transforming addiction into profit”.

But Flávio Bolsonaro called the gambling crackdown “populist, hypocritical and politically motivated” during a campaign rally in Rio de Janeiro on Friday, according to Reuters.

Grêmio, one of the so-called “big twelve” Brazilian football teams, noted ahead of Lula’s announcement that sports betting firms had become “one of the main sources of revenue for sports” since they were made legal.

It said a change in the law “will not only be an open door for illegal betting, but a fatal blow to Brazilian football, leading many clubs to insolvency”.

The main clubs were paid 1.1bn Brazilian reais ($212m; £160m) by sports betting firms in 2025, while the industry took in 62.5bn reais at the same time, broadcaster Globo reports.

Most types of gambling, such as casinos and slot machines, are illegal in Brazil, but ever since online betting was legalised in 2018, it has exploded in popularity.

About 59.9% of Brazilian adults support banning internet betting, a survey by Atlas and Bloomberg published this week has found.

The Brazilian Institute for Responsible Gaming (IBJR), a trade body representing around 75% of the domestic betting sector, said a total ban on fixed-odds betting jeopardised the industry as a whole – and potentially 58-73bn real in revenue.

“The ban also doesn’t eliminate existing demand,” it said in a statement, adding that anyone turning to illicit betting would no longer have “access to protection mechanisms provided in the regulated environment”.

It urged the federal government to strengthen betting regulations rather than outlaw online and fixed-odds betting entirely.