Brazil's betting law is suspended: MP 1.394 prohibits fixed-odds betting and strips Law 14.790 to a shell
A provisional measure signed on 25 September 2026 prohibits the operation, offering, intermediation and advertising of fixed-odds lotteries anywhere in Brazil, including by foreign operators serving people in the country, and revokes most of the 2023 law that licensed them. The Congress clock runs to 4 March 2027. Live poker festivals are untouched and BSOP Millions opened in Sao Paulo as planned, but the online picture a Brazilian reader would have found on this site in October no longer matches the statute book.
Brazil spent three years building a federal licensing regime for online betting and then, in one Friday publication, took it apart.
Medida Provisoria 1.394 was published in the Diario Oficial da Uniao of 25 September 2026, Edicao Extra A. Its first article prohibits, in national territory, the exploitation, offering, intermediation and advertising of fixed-odds lotteries, and says so in terms that reach foreign operators offering them to people in Brazil. The scope covers bets on real sporting events and on virtual online-game events alike.
The transition is short and specific. Authorisations granted under Law 14.790 of 2023 were extinguished thirty days after publication, with no refund of the authorisation fee and no compensation. Operators were given ten days to make their sites and apps unreachable. Open bets with no result were voided and stakes refunded in full; bets already settled keep their prizes. Payment institutions were given seven days to return player funds, with unclaimed money routed to a Caixa Economica Federal account, and a daily fine of R$ 200,000 attaches to a failure to refund. Advertising, sponsorship and marketing are banned across all media, with ten days to take material down, and a breach is treated as abusive advertising under the Consumer Defence Code.
The revocation list in the measure's Article 29 is the part that matters most for anyone reading a legal summary written before October. It strikes Chapter V of Law 13.756/2018, Article 68 of Law 15.421/2026, and the great bulk of Law 14.790/2023 — the Camara's own consolidated text of that law now carries the note "Revogado pela Medida Provisoria n. 1.394, de 25/9/2026" against articles 1 to 40, 43 to 48 and 54, the taxation article and the article listing who was barred from betting among them.
A provisional measure has force from publication but expires unless Congress converts it into law. This one is in tramitation: the Congresso Nacional's record shows it published on 25 September, its deliberation window prorogued to 4 March 2027, an urgency regime running from 9 November, and the joint committee not yet installed. So the prohibition is live law today and its final shape is undecided.
Two things are worth separating out. First, the measure is written about fixed-odds lotteries. Whether a peer-to-peer game such as online poker, where players wager against each other rather than against a book, sits inside that definition is not answered on the face of the text, and the definition of "jogo online" that Law 14.790 used to supply has itself been revoked. That is a question for Brazilian counsel, not for a poker site, and we are not going to answer it here in either direction.
Second, none of this touches live poker. Poker has long been treated in Brazil as a game of skill, the measure says nothing about tournament play in clubs or hotels, and BSOP Millions opened at the Complexo WTC in Sao Paulo on 13 November 2026 on its published schedule.
We have rewritten our Brazil market page to match the statute book rather than the regime it described in October. This is general information and not legal advice.
Read the original at Camara dos Deputados — Medida Provisoria 1.394/2026, published text →
Frequently asked questions
Is online betting still legal in Brazil?
Medida Provisoria 1.394 of 25 September 2026 prohibits the exploitation, offering, intermediation and advertising of fixed-odds lotteries in national territory, including by foreign operators offering them to people in Brazil, and extinguished the authorisations granted under Law 14.790/2023 thirty days after publication. A provisional measure has force from publication but lapses unless Congress converts it; this one's deliberation window runs to 4 March 2027. This is general information, not legal advice.
Does the prohibition cover online poker?
The measure is written about fixed-odds lotteries, covering bets on real sporting events and on virtual online-game events. Whether a peer-to-peer game in which players wager against each other falls inside that definition is not answered on the face of the text, and the definition of jogo online in Law 14.790 was itself revoked by the same measure. We do not answer that question in either direction; it is one for Brazilian counsel.
Does this affect the BSOP or live poker in Brazil?
No. The measure says nothing about live tournament poker, which has long been treated in Brazil as a game of skill. BSOP Millions opened at the Complexo WTC in Sao Paulo on 13 November 2026 on its published schedule.
What happens to money held in a player account?
Under the measure, open bets with no result were voided and stakes refunded in full, settled bets keep their prizes, operators had two days to make refunds available with funds kept segregated, and banks and payment institutions had seven days to return player money. Unclaimed funds are routed to a Caixa Economica Federal account, and a daily fine of R$ 200,000 attaches to a failure to meet the refund duties.