Senator and presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro called President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's ban on sports betting and online casino games a blow to legal certainty. The measure, he said, hit betting companies, football clubs and the businesses tied to them that had already entered the legal market.
Speaking in Brasília on October 7, the Liberal Party (PL) candidate said the authorities should be going after illegal operators rather than companies that paid for a licence. 'Illegal bookmakers really should be banned — the current government does not control them,' he said. He accused Lula's administration of taking money from regulated operators and then abruptly closing their businesses.
On September 25, the day the ban was announced, Bolsonaro called it an election manoeuvre, saying the president had reversed his own administration's policy nine days before the first round. He drew a line between the products: under him online casinos would be banned, while sports betting would be allowed to operate.
He meets Lula in a run-off on October 25, after taking 47.03% against Lula's 45.16% in the first round on October 4. Online betting was legalised in Brazil in 2018 under President Michel Temer, though regulation was left unfinished under Bolsonaro's father, Jair Bolsonaro. Lula signed the regulation into law in December 2023. For licensed operators, the run-off is now the deciding vote on whether the market stays open.
