The Brazil betting ban was a political decision that has handed players to illegal operators, panellists said on 3 November at SiGMA World in Rome, where the CEO of BetBoom LATAM said his Brazilian business has fallen by about half since the ban.
The panel “Brazil’s Regulatory U-Turn: From Boom to Ban” was part of the SiGMA World programme in Rome. Nick Farley, President of Eclipse Compliance Testing, moderated. The speakers were Stepan Dobrovolskiy, CEO of BetBoom LATAM; Juan Camilo Carrasco, Managing Partner of Sora Lawyers; Bruna Mirandola, Responsible Gaming Parliamentary Front Coordinator at the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies (PP); Lucimara Batista dos Reis, Consul and Chief Compliance Officer and AML at the Honorary Consulate of Brazil in Malta; and John Aquilina, former Ambassador Plenipotentiary at the Embassy of Malta in Brazil.
Brazil opened its licensed betting market in January 2025. Provisional Measure 1,394 banned online betting on 25 September 2026, and licensed sites went offline on 6 October. In its first regulated year the market produced $7bn in gross gaming revenue.
BetBoom’s business down by half
Dobrovolskiy said betting in Brazil has been switched off for more than a month and his business there is down by about half. His risk models allowed for regulatory shocks, he said, but not for a ban.
If the market reopens in March, most operators will start again from zero, Dobrovolskiy said. He has cut his investment horizon for Brazil from three to five years to three to six months, because another election could bring another ban.
Customers of BetBoom’s licensed operation are already complaining that their money was stolen on unlicensed sites, he said. Dobrovolskiy’s answer is to bring the licences back, since demand for betting has not gone away.
We are pushing the player into the black market, and there we cannot safeguard them.
Panellist, Brazil’s Regulatory U-Turn: From Boom to Ban, SiGMA World Rome
Brazil betting ban tied to the election
Most of the panel tied the ban to the election calendar. The measure was signed nine days before the first round of the general election on 4 October. Panellists said no one has produced conclusive proof that regulated iGaming harmed the community, and that strong interest groups can sway a close vote.
It was more a political decision than a technical one.
Panellist, Brazil’s Regulatory U-Turn: From Boom to Ban, SiGMA World Rome
Brazil legalised fixed-odds betting in 2018 and only put a full framework in place in 2025, the panel noted. Moving between authorising, banning and suspending the activity solves nothing, speakers said, though they saw the position as recoverable if the political climate changes and the industry engages.
The damage reaches past operators, according to the panel. Fintechs, payment providers and other businesses tied to betting are exposed, so policy has to protect families, companies and investors as well as players. A ban is not a tool a government should use in its own favour, speakers told regulators in the room.
You need to protect the whole ecosystem.
Panellist, Brazil’s Regulatory U-Turn: From Boom to Ban, SiGMA World Rome
Colombia’s deposit tax as a warning
Carrasco pointed to Colombia, where a 19% VAT on deposits meant a player depositing $100 saw $84 reach the betting account. The legal market shrank by 35% as players moved to illegal operators, he said. Colombia’s latest economic bill would also tax online deposits at 19%.
Brazil’s case does not carry over automatically to the rest of Latin America, Carrasco said, because each country has its own constitutional and political set-up.
Next steps
Speakers said the route back runs through earlier cooperation between industry and government on drafting rules, and through operators making the case for what regulation brings, from tax revenue for education and health to transparency. Mirandola said regulation is the only way to protect consumers and that Congress will find the right balance.
Laws can only be valuable laws if the community embraces them.
Panellist, Brazil’s Regulatory U-Turn: From Boom to Ban, SiGMA World Rome
As the panel ended, the Supreme Court public hearing on the ban was under way in Brasília, and Mirandola said she expected a decision within days. Justice Luiz Fux closed the hearing that evening without a ruling or a date; the eight constitutional challenges to the measure go to the court’s plenary. The government aims for a vote on Provisional Measure 1,394 in Congress by 20 December.
The iGaming Europe is an official media partner of SiGMA.
Source: SiGMA World
