Lula Says End of Online Betting Is Boosting Brazil’s Economy

Speaking in a national radio and television address on Sunday night, Nov. 8, 2026 — his first after winning a fourth term — Lula tied household consumption to the shutdown of Brazil’s regulated “bets” market.

“The end of betting is already generating a positive impact on the economy. Without spending on bets, families have increased consumption, commerce sells more, industry produces more, and the wheel of the economy starts turning again,” he said, according to the full transcript published by G1. “The bets destroyed lives and need to remain in the past, like the nightmare from which Brazil has finally woken up.”

Ban Signed in September

Lula’s government published Medida Provisória 1.394/2026 on Sept. 25, 2026, prohibiting fixed-odds and online sports betting, including operators that had been licensed under the earlier regulatory regime. Licensed platforms largely went dark in early October.

The provisional measure must still clear Congress to become permanent law. Its first 60-day window runs into late November and can be extended; the broader conversion timeline stretches into early 2027.

On Monday, Nov. 9, Supreme Court Justice Luiz Fux suspended lower-court lawsuits challenging the measure’s constitutionality until the court rules on the merits, after the Prosecutor General’s Office warned of conflicting injunctions that could revive operators.

Supermarkets Claim a Spending Rebound

The Brazilian Association of Supermarkets (Abras), citing NielsenIQ tracking, said food retail sales rose about 6.5% in the week of Oct. 5–11 and about 6.3% in Oct. 12–18 compared with the same weeks of 2025, with gains concentrated in staples such as rice, cooking oil, pasta and coffee. Abras links part of that rebound to money no longer going to betting apps and points to a drop in Pix transfers after the ban.

The Brazilian Institute for Responsible Gaming (IBJR), which represents licensed operators, disputes that reading. It says supermarket sales were already rising before the ban and that a lower Pix volume does not prove former wagering money moved into grocery carts. Finance Ministry figures put regulated gross gaming revenue near R$37 billion in 2025 — under half a percent of Brazil’s roughly R$8.1 trillion in household consumption, IBJR notes.

Lula’s speech framed the ban as both an economic and a social win after his reelection, which followed a bitter runoff against Flávio Bolsonaro. Clash Report has tracked how Bolsonaro fled Brazil on an Italian passport after the defeat, was later ordered to surrender his passports, and how the New York Times reported U.S. help in that exit.