Senator Carlos Fávaro told senates on the Senate floor that he has filed a bill to ban fixed-odds betting across Brazil.
The bill, PL 4,977/2026, would also end the operation, advertising, promotion, sponsorship and intermediation of this type of betting nationwide.
Fávaro said he decided to file the bill after hearing from families affected by betting during visits to municipalities in Mato Grosso.
Recently, Brazil's Finance Ministry revealed that over a million people have now enrolled in the country's self-exclusion program, up from 925,000 in June.
"The survey we conducted in seven municipalities revealed a finding that should embarrass any defender of these platforms: nearly 86% of respondents recognize online gambling as a problem, whether within their own family or their social circle,” he said.
“Almost nine in ten people know it's destroying families, and yet some still argue that regulation alone is the solution," the Senator added.
Fávaro argued a ban is necessary because regulation and advertising restrictions have not been enough to prevent mass access to betting platforms in the country.
The Federal Government has already introduced its own package of advertising restrictions for licensed operators, published by the Finance Ministry, requiring every betting ad to display one of three official warnings: "Betting can cause addiction," "Betting makes you lose money," or "Betting is not an investment."
Adding to that, a survey by Instituto Locomotiva found that 77% of Brazilian bettors admit to at least one irregular practice while betting over the past three months, with half admitting to two or more, the threshold researchers use to classify someone as an "illegal bettor."
A working group of consumer protection bodies has proposed to the Finance Ministry that betting platforms be required to display the probability of losing before a bet is confirmed
