Offshore operators’ share of Brazilian iGaming demand rose from 3.4% on September 24 to 14.8% on September 9, according to Blask data cited by Yogonet. The jump for operators such as Betonline, Evergame, BetUS & Ignition Casino came in the days after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed Provisional Measure 1,394, which bans fixed-odds sports betting and online casino across the country.
All licensed sites went offline at midnight on October 6. About 85 to 90 companies held federal licences, each bought for R$30 million. Licences are extinguished 30 days after publication, around October 25, with no fee refunds.
The ban does not stop at the licensed market. The measure prohibits the “exploration, offer, intermediation and advertising” of fixed-odds betting, including by foreign operators that target people in Brazil. The measure as reported does not set penalties for individual bettors. A separate bill proposes four to six years in prison for operating and two to four years for promoting.
“Now, they will take advantage of the prohibition of legal betting to attract bettors to the illegal market,” the president of ANJL, Brazil’s national games and lotteries association, said. ANJL says more than 30 million bettors are exposed to thousands of illegal sites.
Between roughly 300 and 415 new illegal betting sites appeared within a day of the ban announcement, depending on the tracker. Bet Legal counted 415, a 141% increase. Brazil’s government blocked 66,482 illegal addresses between January 2025 and September 2026, according to ANJL data.
Payments are the main enforcement tool. The Central Bank published three resolutions on September 30 barring betting transactions on Pix, TED and boleto. Pix has more than 150 million active users, and more than 90% of payments to betting operators went through it, according to FEBRABAN. Pix transfers to betting platforms peaked at about R$20 billion a month.
Banks match outgoing transfers against the tax IDs (CNPJs) of known betting operators and reject matches in real time. Offshore operators have no Brazilian CNPJ, so that check does not catch them. Under Ordinance SPA/MF 2,750, banks and payment processors must close illegal operators’ accounts within 24 hours and report within two days. Funds in illegal betting accounts can be forfeited to the state through an administrative process.
Offshore sites also offer none of the protections of the licensed market. Illegal platforms provide no deposit limits, self-exclusion tools or consumer protections. More than 1.3 million Brazilians had asked to be excluded from betting platforms, and 51% of them cited health problems, according to the Ministry of Justice.
Balances on licensed sites are being returned through the banks. Refunds run from October 9 to 14, with Caixa Econômica Federal as backstop. Balances of R$1.33 billion (about $265 million) were still held on October 5.
The measure lapses unless Congress approves it within 120 days. Regulus Partners puts the chance of a permanent full ban at 5%, with an 85% chance of a multi-month blackout followed by a reworked market. Operators including Allwyn (Betano) are preparing legal action.
