Brazil's betting licences end under MP 1.394, no fee refund

Brazil's federal authorisations to run fixed-odds betting end today, Sunday 25 October 2026. Under Provisional Measure (MP) 1.394/2026, published in an extra edition of the official gazette (DOU) on 25 September, every concession, permission and authorisation granted under Law 14.790/2023 is extinguished 30 days after publication. Licences issued by Brazil's states and the Federal District end on the same timetable (art. 2).

The MP's Article 4 states the terms plainly: the extinction is "for reasons of public interest" and gives the operator no right to a full or partial refund of the licence fee (the *outorga*) or to any compensation from the state (our translation). According to iGB Brasil and Mix Vale, each operator paid R$30 million for a five-year licence.

Who is affected

iGB Brasil and Mix Vale both report that 85 federal authorisations lapse today. Mix Vale says they were held by 82 companies, and iGB Brasil puts the number of brands launched since the market was regulated at almost 190. These are the outlets' counts; we have not matched them against the Finance Ministry's own list.

In practice, the sites were already dark. The MP banned new deposits from 25 September and required sites and apps to go offline ten days later, from 6 October according to the Senate's news agency. Today is the formal legal end of the licences.

What does not end today

The licences go; the obligations stay. The MP keeps the Finance Ministry's Secretariat of Prizes and Betting (SPA) in charge of supervising anything that happened while the licences were in force (art. 5). Former operators must keep sending data on players, balances, refunds and revenue through the SPA's Sigap reporting system (art. 11), and breaches can still be punished under the sanctions of Law 14.790 (art. 12). They must also keep their records for at least five years (art. 10).

SPA Ordinance 3.005, published on 2 October, sets 15 December 2026 as the general deadline for operators to settle their remaining regulatory, financial and reporting obligations, except where the ordinance or the SPA sets a specific deadline.

The MP still needs Congress

A provisional measure takes effect immediately but lapses unless Congress converts it into law. Carta Circular reports that the first voting deadline is 23 November, extendable once by 60 days, that the MP starts blocking Congress's agenda on 9 November, and that the joint committee reviewing it still has no chair or rapporteur. Legal challenges are also pending at the Supreme Federal Court (STF), including the ANJL's, and lawmakers have tabled nearly 100 amendments.

Carlos Lima, president of the industry body IBJR, raised the open question with iGB Brasil: "If Congress rejects the MP, what happens to the extinguished authorisations? Will a new licence fee have to be paid?" (our translation). The MP's text does not answer it.

What it means for players

Nothing changes for player balances today. Under the MP, money still owed goes back through the banks and payment institutions that held the operators' accounts, and anything they could not pay out moves to a dedicated account at Caixa Econômica Federal under Finance Ministry supervision. Our explainer on how unpaid balances come back covers that route. Courts are also pressing operators that did not report balances: a federal court in Rio ordered one operator to report its player balances on 16 October, and a São Paulo judge ordered seven operators to freeze refund money on 23 October.

In our view, today's date matters most as a marker. From now on, no company holds a federal authorisation to offer fixed-odds betting in Brazil, so any site still accepting wagers from people in Brazil is doing so without one. If you are still owed money, use only official government and Caixa channels, and never pay a "release fee" to get it. For the background, see how the online casino ban took shape.