The number of Rio de Janeiro betting lawsuits rose from 58 in 2024 to 689 by September 2026, an increase of more than 1,000%, according to data from the Rio de Janeiro State Court (TJRJ). Most of the cases were brought by gamblers who lost large sums to online operators and cite gambling addiction.
The count runs to September, the month President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva issued Provisional Measure (MP) No. 1,394, which bans fixed-odds betting and online games across Brazil. Licensed sites have been offline since 6 October. In defending the ban, the Attorney General’s Office (AGU) cited a 140% increase in care given through Brazil’s public health system (SUS) for disorders linked to gambling addiction.
What gamblers are suing over in Rio de Janeiro
Addiction-related loss claims make up the bulk of the TJRJ caseload. The rest covers a wide range of disputes between players and operators.
- Winning bets that operators did not pay out.
- Changes to odds, the prices that set a sports bet’s potential return, and disputes over events recorded during a match.
- Accounts and withdrawals frozen by the operator.
- Terms and conditions that gamblers argue are abusive under consumer law.
Courts elsewhere in Brazil have heard similar loss claims. In May, a court dismissed a gambling liability claim against Novibet. European operators face similar litigation at home, after the Court of Justice of the EU ruled that local gambling laws override MGA licences in player-loss cases.
The household cost of betting in Brazil
Brazilian families lost R$62.5bn to betting in 2025, net of prizes paid back to players, according to the third edition of the Brazilian States’ Fiscal Bulletin. The bulletin is produced by the National Committee of State Finance Secretaries (Comsefaz) and the Celso Furtado International Centre for Development Policies.
The R$62.5bn equals about 0.68% of families’ gross national disposable income, according to Times Brasil. The authors estimate net losses averaged R$4.7bn a month between October 2024 and March 2026. They built the figure by comparing actual Pix transfers from individuals to companies in the recreation category, which includes betting sites, with a projection of how those payments would have grown without betting.
The bulletin found transactions slowed after Brazil restricted betting by Bolsa Família welfare recipients in October 2025. Household debt stayed close to the peak of its historical series in early 2026, and the share of income going to interest rose by 1.16 percentage points between February 2025 and February 2026.
A separate study by the National Confederation of Commerce in Goods, Services and Tourism (CNC), released on 28 April 2026, found that retail lost R$143bn in sales between January 2023 and March 2026. The CNC put online betting spending above R$30bn a month in March 2026, more than 500% higher than in January 2023, and linked betting to 268,000 families falling into severe default of 90 days or more. Men, people aged 35 and over and families earning up to five minimum wages were the most affected groups, according to the study.
Fabio Bentes, Chief Economist at the CNC, described a substitution effect, in which income meant for debt repayments or shopping goes to betting platforms, according to Movimento Econômico.
The impact is no longer isolated and has become macroeconomic.
José Roberto Tadros, President, CNC-Sesc-Senac System, at the study’s launch (translated from Portuguese)
The Brazilian Institute of Responsible Gaming (IBJR), which represents licensed operators, called the CNC’s conclusions alarmist. It sent the confederation a formal notice demanding access to the study’s data and methodology, and cited research it commissioned from LCA Consultoria Econômica that gives betting a smaller share of household consumption and GDP.
Next steps
The IBJR and the National Association of Games and Lotteries (ANJL) asked Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice Luiz Fux to suspend the MP, or at least exclude operators holding federal authorisations. Attorney General Jorge Messias, head of the AGU, asked Fux to keep the ban in force until the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (PGR) gives its opinion.
Fux has not set a date for a ruling. Existing authorisations, for which operators paid R$30m each, lapse on 25 October, the day of the presidential runoff. The MP loses force unless Congress converts it into law within 60 days, a period that can be extended once by another 60.
Source: Rio de Janeiro State Court (TJRJ)
