In full political campaign mode, Lula can’t let go of previous grievances in how Brazil launched and engineered its online gambling regime as of 2025 cites Leonardo Biazzi. 

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) has escalated his attacks on Brazil’s online gambling regime as he vows to “work with the Congress and put an end to virtual casinos”. 

Lula’s most scathing attack to date of Brazil’s online gambling market came in an address to PT delegates on the eve of the party’s celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD) on 7 March. 

Brazil’s President once more questioned the logic of allowing online casinos to operate in a country where land-based casinos remain prohibited. 

His address singled out “Tigrinho”, a popular slot game theme on a baby tiger that has come to symbolise Brazil’s online gambling boom. Yet one that the President approved as a 1 January 2025, when Lula gave his presidential signature of the Bets Regime.  

“Casinos are prohibited in this country. It makes no sense that the Tigrinho game is permitted. We want to work with Congress and put an end to this,” Lula said. 

In an election year, Lula’s attacks on online gambling are becoming more frequent and intertwined with the PT government returning once more to its trusted campaign slogan of “BBB-Tax – on Billionaires, Bankers and Bets”. 

A populist message, yet Lula’s contradiction stems partly from the protracted political negotiations to shape Brazil’s gambling framework, in which the PT Party failed to have influences amongst the divided Congress. 

The original proposal, prepared by the Ministry of Finance, focused primarily on regulating sports betting as a stand alone discipline, a course favoured by PT as the correct approach to establish Brazil’s gambling regime.

The Senate initially expressed a preference for  applying regulation solely on sports wagering. However, a last minute intervention saw online gaming provisions reinserted into the draft of Law No. 14.790 by the Chamber of Deputies before it was sent for presidential approval.

Prior to Lula signing the betting law, operators had been offering gambling services to Brazilian consumers without a formal regulatory framework. Law No. 14.790 forced its former grey-market environment into a licensed regime, prompting several operators to purchase licences costing R$30m (circa. €5.3m), to establish locally incorporated companies and enable the federal government to begin collecting taxes from the sector.

The framework has quickly produced a sizeable regulated market. According to the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting (SPA), 84 companies are currently authorised to operate in Brazil’s sports betting and online gaming market. The ministry estimates that the sector generated approximately R$37bn in Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) in 2025.

No Ground Given 

During the first full year of regulation, Brazil’s betting market generated R$9.9bn in tax revenues, according to the federal tax authority Receita Federal, which has expressed its satisfaction with the fiscal returns of the regime. 

Yet economics aside, 2025 proved to be a fractious year for the PT government in managing the launch of the Brazilian betting market. Plans to engineer a doubling of gambling licence taxes were mishandled by senior PT figures close to President Lula and Finance Minister Fernando Haddad, creating political embarrassment for the administration.

The government was ultimately forced to deny the proposal, prompting PT leaders to redesign the 2026 federal budget, much to the delight of opposition parties.

Yet the regime’s fiscal success has done little to temper the President’s rhetoric. Since early 2026,  Lula has taken a firm stance against the rapid expansion of online betting platforms, making the sector a focal point of his emerging election campaign. In February, he declared that he was “no friend to the gambling industry” and suggested that Brazil’s laws may need to be tightened significantly.

In the same month, he promised to take a “very serious stance against the sector”, adding that his scepticism toward gambling had partly been shaped by religious teachings that influenced his personal beliefs.

The political context is difficult to ignore. Lula is seeking reelection in Brazil’s 2026 presidential race and remains the leading left-wing candidate. 

A recent Datafolha poll places him ahead in a potential second-round contest with 46% voting intention, although his disapproval rating stands at the same level.