Brazil’s ruling Workers’ Party has moved from campaign rhetoric to formal legislation, filing PL-1808/2026 in the Chamber of Deputies to impose a federal ban on online gambling and repeal the Bets Law framework that took effect on January 1, 2025. The proposal was submitted by Deputy Pedro Uczai and backed by 68 PT lawmakers, putting the party in the position of trying to dismantle a regulatory system built under its own government.
The bill reaches platforms, advertising, and transaction processing
The text goes well beyond banning betting sites alone. It targets the “exploitation, operation, offering, availability, promotion, advertising, intermediation and processing of transactions” tied to fixed-odds betting across Brazil. Penalties are severe: fines of up to 2 billion Brazilian reais and prison terms of two to eight years, with tougher treatment in cases involving minors or criminal organizations. Platforms with more than 1 million users would also have to remove gambling promotional content.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has not signed onto the bill, nor have senior federal officials. Lula said in an April 8 interview with ICL Notícias that he would shut down online betting if the decision were his alone, saying he could not accept “this uncontrolled gambling” continuing. He also said congressional action would be required, while noting the betting sector’s financial ties with lawmakers.
Tax revenue and election politics are pulling in opposite directions
A full repeal would clash with the government’s own fiscal interests. Receita Federal collected 2.5 billion reais in gambling-related tax revenue in January and February 2026, up 236% from the same period a year earlier. That money supports social and welfare spending central to Lula’s reelection message, which makes the proposal politically awkward even before it reaches a vote.
The industry group ANJL called the bill “a great risk,” arguing that the regulated structure was created to pull activity out of the shadows and into a supervised market. Uczai presented the measure as an urgent public health response, saying betting had moved beyond entertainment and become “a mechanism for capturing popular income.”
Crypto rails could be caught in the same net
The crypto angle is hard to miss. Under Brazil’s current licensed gambling rules, cryptocurrency deposits are already barred. If the framework is repealed, that regulated structure disappears as well, which could redirect activity toward offshore and unregulated operators where crypto is commonly used as a payment method.
The bill’s wording is broad. By covering all “processing of transactions” linked to gambling, it appears wide enough to reach multiple payment channels, including digital assets. With Brazil’s October 2026 general election approaching, the key question is whether Lula and party leadership will openly back the proposal or leave it as campaign positioning.