In a public address for International Women’s Day, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called for a new law to ban online casinos in Brazil.
The longtime critic of online gambling said that addiction is hitting Brazilian households hard.
“Although most addicts are men, the burden falls disproportionately on women,” he said. “It’s money meant for food, rent, and children’s school that disappears on the cell phone screen.”
Is Brazil’s Lula Finished With Online Casinos?
Brick-and-mortar casinos are prohibited in Brazil, he noted. The president argued that it “makes no sense to allow gambling games to enter homes, indebting families through their cell phones.”
The president pledged to work with several branches of government to advance a Brazil online casino prohibition. It would apparently reverse years of work regulating some online gambling in the country.
“We will work together, uniting the Government, Congress, and the Judiciary, to ensure that these digital casinos do not continue to indebt families and destroy homes,” he added.
In a statement in 2024, Lula said that he would seek a ban if regulated operators didn’t mitigate gambling harm. “If regulation doesn’t work, I won’t hesitate in putting an end to (betting) definitively,” he said, according to Reuters.
In 2025, the Rio de Janeiro State Public Defender’s Office filed a $53.7 million lawsuit against Brazilian online gambling platforms over alleged responsible gambling failures.
Existing Online Casinos in Brazil
Some forms of online gambling are legal.
Under Brazilian law, only companies with national authorization can operate betting platforms throughout the country. Platforms associated with state licenses can operate within the limits of their respective state.
Websites or apps that do not have either a state or federal license and offer betting services are considered illegal. Federally authorized sites must use the “.bet.br” domain.
Illegal online casinos reportedly still operate in Brazil. The country has successfully blocked some of them through an agreement with a domestic telecommunications company.
President Lula’s remarks came just a couple of days before Kalshi, a U.S.-based prediction market with sports betting, announced a plan to launch in Brazil.
Brazil Betting Market
Brazil, a country home to 213 million people, has at least 25 million registered users on government-sanctioned online casino and betting platforms, according to 2025 government data.
Legal operators reportedly generated $6.6 billion USD from those players in 2025.
For comparison, the U.S., home to more than 340 million people, had an online casino and sports gambling market worth $27 billion in 2025. Like in Brazil, many illegal casinos take bets from Americans.
Photo: Ricardo Stuckert/PR
