Provisional Measure (MP) 1,394, which banned betting in Brazil, drew 99 proposed amendments before the window for filing closed on Tuesday. Five authors withdrew their submissions, leaving 95 for the National Congress to analyse.
President Lula issued the measure on 25 September, citing high household debt levels and gambling-harm risks. It orders existing licences to lapse within 30 days with no compensation for operators who paid 30m BRL ($6m) in licensing fees. Congress has 60 days to debate and vote; from the 45th day the measure takes urgent procedure, and it can be extended by a further 60 days. Until a final vote it blocks the rest of the congressional agenda.
Where the amendments converge
The main point of agreement is a ban on online casinos. Wording differs, the logic does not: prohibit operating, offering, brokering and advertising online casino games outright. Some deputies would keep the vertical structure but require certification of casino games and gaming aggregators. A second common thread is a harder line on advertising for illegal betting and wider blocking of underground sites. Consensus is forming around banning online gaming advertising while allowing sports betting ads. Several amendments would direct more money to the National Health Fund (FNS) and fund gambling-treatment programmes under SUS.
Sports betting itself is also up for change, including a move away from bets on isolated events such as cards, corners and penalties. Amendment 64 rewrites MP 1,394 in full, covering advertising, sponsorship, measures against illegal betting, design, bettor protection and obligations for technology providers. Its author, congressman Maurício Neves, would keep the current model until licences expire plus a wind-down period, arguing that a ban does not remove betting but pushes it to illegal operators. Other parliamentarians confine prohibitions to illegal operators and say ending betting by provisional measure breaches the acquired rights of those who paid for licences and the principle of legal certainty.
Further amendments address player protection: a single self-exclusion system, added warnings on dependency risk, limits on betting advertising hours so it does not reach children and teenagers, session limits, and affordability checks on bettors. Some proposals already exist in regulation, among them a ban on betting by welfare recipients and on credit card deposits. Others sit outside the measure's scope, such as free prize distribution through draws.
Recurring across authors: a full ban on slots and unauthorised online games, tighter oversight through an inter-agency committee and site blocking, a ban on advertising prohibited games, funding for addiction treatment, and bettor protection mechanisms. Taken together the amendments soften the provisional measure. Still open is who will be named president and rapporteur of the joint committee on MP 1,394: 12 senators and 13 deputies have been nominated as full members, with six senators and seven deputies in reserve. The full committee comprises 26 senators and 26 deputies.
