The size of what was banned: Brazil's betting sites in numbers

Provisional Measure (MP) 1,394 of Sept. 25, 2026 bans operating, offering, brokering and advertising fixed-odds betting in Brazil, both sports betting and online casino-style games. New deposits were blocked the same day. Bettors had until Oct. 5 to withdraw their balances, and the sites were supposed to go offline from Oct. 6. Those who did not withdraw get their money back through the bank of origin, on a schedule running from Oct. 9 to 14, with Caixa, the state-owned federal bank, as intermediary in case of problems.

The MP is already in force, but Congress must approve it within 120 days or it lapses. (A provisional measure is an executive decree with the force of law.) Before debating whether the decision was right, it is worth understanding the size of the market it shuts down.

Where the money went

According to data from the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA) of the Finance Ministry, licensed betting sites received R$ 220.6 billion in deposits in 2025, the first year of the regulated market. Of that total, R$ 183.7 billion went back to bettors as prizes and withdrawable bonuses. The companies kept R$ 36.9 billion, what the industry calls gross gaming revenue.

What that comes to per bettor

About 25 million Brazilians made deposits in 2025. Dividing the totals, the average bettor deposited R$ 8,800 over the year and ended up R$ 1,476 poorer. That is R$ 123 a month, about 8% of the 2025 minimum wage of R$ 1,518.

The average hides a lot here. A minority of heavy bettors pulls the number up, and most people lose smaller amounts. The closest thing to a median comes from the Central Bank: in August 2024, the median amount that Bolsa Família recipients (beneficiaries of Brazil's cash-transfer program for low-income families) sent to betting sites was R$ 100.

Four yardsticks that don't match, and why

Anyone following the subject has seen very different numbers for the same market. It is not a contradiction: each one measures something different. The estimate from Comsefaz (the committee of Brazil's state finance secretaries), R$ 351 billion, adds up all Pix transfers linked to betting sites, including unlicensed operators and money that goes back and forth. The SPA's R$ 220.6 billion is deposits at licensed sites only. The R$ 36.9 billion is what actually stayed with the companies. And the R$ 9.9 billion is what the federal tax authority collected from the sector from January to August 2026.

Who bets

The most detailed picture predates regulation. In September 2024, a Central Bank technical note estimated that about 24 million people made at least one Pix transfer to betting sites between January and August of that year, in a flow of R$ 18 billion to R$ 21 billion a month.

Most bettors were between 20 and 30 years old. The average amount transferred, however, rose with age: around R$ 100 a month among the youngest and above R$ 3,000 among people over 60.

The part about Bolsa Família drew the most attention. In August 2024, 5 million recipients sent R$ 3 billion to betting sites. That is equivalent to about 21% of the R$ 14.1 billion the program paid that month. It does not mean the benefit went to betting, because money is not earmarked. But it gives the scale of the spending among the poorest families.

From legal to banned in eight years

What remains open

The ban has broad support: 75% of respondents said they agreed with it in an Atlas/Bloomberg poll released two days before the announcement. The industry argues that companies paid for five-year licenses and that closing the legal market pushes bettors toward illegal sites, which pay no tax and follow no consumer-protection rules. There is also the effect on soccer: 14 of the 20 clubs in Brazil's top division (Série A) had a betting company as their main sponsor in 2026, according to Sports Value.

The data that will show the result do not exist yet. The first signs point down: Pix transactions linked to betting sites fell about 10% in the first three days after the MP. The next Central Bank figures will say how much of that money disappeared and how much simply took another path. And, if the MP passes, where it ends up: consumption, debt payments or bets off the radar. On debt, incidentally, household finances were already tight. The numbers are here.