Brazil's 85 federal betting licences have lapsed under MP 1.394; operators now face a December 15 compliance deadline

Licences ended by law, not by a new order

Brazil's federal betting licences ended on October 25 without a cancellation order. Article 4 of Provisional Measure 1.394, published in an extra edition of the DOU on September 25, states that concessions, permissions and authorisations granted under Law 14.790/2023 "will be extinguished at the end of a thirty-day period" from publication. The measure gives public interest as the reason. It says operators have no right to a full or partial refund of the licence fee and no right to compensation from the state.

The Secretariat of Prizes and Betting (SPA) has not issued a separate act listing the cancellations. Its register, now titled "Companies authorised until MP 1.394/2026 took effect" and last updated on October 9, lists 85 companies. Among them are Betano, bet365, Betfair, Sportingbet, Superbet, KTO, Novibet, EstrelaBet, Blaze and Caixa Loterias, which ran the state-owned BetCaixa brand. Together the companies held about 185 .bet.br domains. Each licence cost R$30 million, and the Ministry of Health's statement on the ban put the total at R$2.55 billion for 85 licences.

State lottery betting concessions end on the same timeline under Article 2 of the measure.

Sites and player balances

A Finance Ministry timeline says deposits were barred from September 25. Players could withdraw funds until 23:59 on October 5, and betting sites and apps had to go offline from October 6. Operators then had to report each player's remaining balance by CPF taxpayer number to the banks. The banks were to return the money between October 9 and 14. Caixa Econômica Federal takes over cases the banks cannot complete.

What operators still owe

Under Article 5, the SPA can still supervise and sanction conduct from the period when the licences were valid. SPA Ordinance 3.005, published on October 2, sets December 15, 2026 as the deadline for operators to pay outstanding amounts due under Law 13.756, file their final SIGAP reports and settle their regulatory obligations. The ordinance says extinction, dissolution or liquidation does not cancel debts incurred while a company was operating. Each operator must keep a legal representative in place until its obligations are settled.

Our October 21 countdown explained how the 30-day clock worked.

What comes next

Congress has until November 23 to vote on the measure, according to the Congress page for MP 1.394, and urgency rules apply from November 9. At the Supreme Federal Court, Justice Luiz Fux has called a public hearing for November 3 on the challenges to the ban. The court has not ruled on requests to suspend it, so the ban and the extinction of the licences remain in effect.