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President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva reaffirmed his opposition to reopening Brazil’s betting market ahead of the 25 October presidential runoff on Sunday, while challenger Flávio Bolsonaro faced questions over what alternative he would offer companies and football clubs affected by the prohibition.
Speaking during a livestream on 22 October with federal deputy André Janones and financial educator Nath Finanças, Lula said betting platforms would not return. He defended the prohibition as protection against household indebtedness and rejected using losses incurred by poorer people to support football clubs.
Lula thanked Nath Finanças for drawing his attention to gambling’s effects on family finances. During the same transmission, he suggested creating a body to provide financial guidance to the public if re-elected, though he did not outline a detailed institutional plan.
The intervention builds on his earlier family-focused campaign messaging. As Informar previously reported, Lula included the betting prohibition in a 14 October letter to evangelical families, presenting it as protection against financial and social harm.
Meanwhile, Folha de S.Paulo reported on 22 October that Bolsonaro had assured Flamengo president Luiz Eduardo Baptista that he would seek a solution for clubs and betting companies if elected. The newspaper attributed the account to three people connected to football and Bolsonaro’s campaign, speaking anonymously. That telephone conversation occurred on 26 September, the day after the government issued its prohibition, rather than during the final campaign week.
As Informar previously reported, Bolsonaro criticised the ban on 7 October, arguing that it undermined legal certainty for companies previously authorised to operate. He had earlier distinguished sports betting from online casinos, indicating that sports wagering could continue while casinos would be prohibited.
The candidates’ positions therefore differed but did not amount to opposing, fully specified regulatory programmes. Lula explicitly supported maintaining the prohibition, while Bolsonaro criticised its scope and consequences without committing to wholesale repeal.
Polling offered a qualification to the campaign’s emphasis on gambling. According to CNN Brasil’s report on a Quaest survey published on 21 October, among respondents who recalled at least one recent government announcement, 11% mentioned the betting prohibition. This placed it behind the increase in Bolsa Família, the income support programme for low-income families, at 25%, and the proposed end of the 6×1 working schedule, at 16%. The betting ban tied with a package of measures for microentrepreneurs.
Among respondents aware of recent announcements, 60% considered the measures electorally motivated—a finding covering the announcements collectively, not the betting ban specifically.
Provisional Measure 1,394/2026, issued on 25 September, prohibits fixed-odds sports betting and online games, including their intermediation and advertising. It remains in force but requires congressional approval to become permanent legislation; its validity is also being challenged before the Supreme Federal Court.
