Countdown for Brazil’s Fixed-Odds Licences: Article 4 of the Provisional Measure Points to Extinction Around October 25

File photo: Brazil’s National Congress in Brasília, 20 May 2007. Context for congressional review of the provisional measure, not the 2026 proceedings. Photo: Mario Roberto Duran Ortiz / Wikimedia Commons; photograph released into the public domain. Architecture: Oscar Niemeyer. Source photograph reproduced without alteration; the website displays a cropped thumbnail. Original photo and credit. Rights information.

It has been almost a month since the provisional measure was published on September 25.

Article 4 of Provisional Measure No. 1,394 (Medida Provisória nº 1.394, dated September 25, 2026), published on the Brazilian Presidency’s official website, is unequivocal: all fixed-odds betting concessions, permissions and authorisations issued under Law No. 14,790/2023 are extinguished thirty days after publication of the provisional measure. The stated reason is the public interest, and operators have no right to a refund of concession payments already made or to compensation from the public authorities. A rough calendar calculation puts the thirty-day deadline at around October 25, 2026, just days away.

The same text contains another timeline that is easier to overlook. Article 7 requires operators to make betting websites and applications inaccessible ten days after publication, or face blocking. Ten days corresponds to around October 5. In other words, the “shutdown” visible to players should, under the text, have happened earlier; Article 4 addresses the legal extinction of the authorisations themselves. The two deadlines do not coincide.

Obligations Do Not Disappear When Websites Shut Down

The provisional measure does not say that extinction wipes the slate clean. Article 5 preserves the Ministry of Finance’s Secretariat of Prizes and Betting (SPA) powers to supervise and impose penalties for events occurring while authorisations were in force. Articles 8 and 9 require operators to provide account-holding institutions with details of balances to be refunded, after which those institutions transfer the money to players; amounts that cannot be transferred go into a dedicated account at Caixa Econômica Federal. Article 10 lists obligations that continue after extinction: taxes and statutory allocations, anti-money laundering, responsible gambling and sporting integrity, providing information to the competent authorities, and retaining data for at least five years.

On October 2, SPA issued Ordinance (Portaria) No. 3,005/2026, setting out the reporting and regularisation procedures for the shutdown phase in more detail. An October 5 Ministry of Finance press release said companies must submit information, including final player-account balances, through SIGAP, using balances as at 11:59 p.m. on October 5 and completing submission by October 7. The deadline for regularising financial and regulatory obligations was set at December 15, 2026. Even after their authorisations are extinguished, companies remain responsible for obligations arising during their operations.

Congress and the Supreme Court: The Real Variables Around the Extinction Date

A provisional measure has the force of law, but it is not final. The official congressional page shows that the consideration period for Provisional Measure No. 1,394 runs until November 23, 2026, with the urgency procedure applying from November 9. This means that even if authorisations are extinguished under Article 4 around October 25, Congress could still reshape the text in the following weeks, including compromises publicly discussed such as continuing the ban on online casino gambling while allowing sports betting.

On the judicial side, several reports say that Justice Luiz Fux is the reporting justice for the constitutional challenges to the provisional measure. As of this article’s writing, a search of publicly available material had not found an injunction from the Federal Supreme Court suspending the entire measure. The Supreme Court’s official case records should be treated as authoritative on this point; this article was unable to open every case file individually to verify the latest ruling. There is currently insufficient evidence to state as an established fact that “a ruling will definitely come on October 25.”

Folha de S.Paulo’s C-Level section reported on October 8 that centrist lawmakers were seeking to amend the provisional measure after the election. One proposal was to maintain the ban on online casinos while allowing betting on sporting events. This is reporting on political manoeuvring, not a text already passed by Congress.

How the Industry Should Read It

For companies that still hold, or previously held, Brazilian fixed-odds authorisations, the immediate priority is not slogans but the calendar: the website-shutdown duty in Article 7, extinction of authorisations under Article 4, reporting under Portaria 3,005 and the December 15 regularisation window, and Congress’s November consideration milestones. Extinction does not mean that litigation, refunds and administrative penalties have all ended. The text spells out those continuing obligations clearly.

Sources

• Brazilian Presidency, full text of Provisional Measure No. 1,394: https://planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2023-2026/2026/mpv/mpv1394.htm
• Congressional page on the provisional measure (consideration period and urgency procedure): https://www.congressonacional.leg.br/materias/medidas-provisorias/-/mpv/175871
• Ministry of Finance press release (key points of Portaria nº 3,005/2026, October 5, 2026): https://www.gov.br/fazenda/pt-br/assuntos/noticias/2026/outubro/secretaria-de-premios-e-apostas-regulamenta-obrigacoes-das-empresas-apos-proibicao-das-bets
• Folha de S.Paulo, C-Level (report on centrist efforts to amend the provisional measure, October 8, 2026): https://c-level.folha.uol.com.br/negocios/2026/10/centrao-aposta-em-vitoria-de-flavio-bolsonaro-para-liberar-bets-apos-segundo-turno.shtml
• Note: Counting the “thirty days” in Article 4 from the publication date of September 25, 2026 gives approximately October 25, 2026. This article did not obtain the original DOU page to check the precise publication time word for word. The latest rulings in individual STF ADI cases were not checked case by case in the official system; this limitation is noted in the text.