Brazil Congress Extends Lula's Betting Ban Decree by 60 Days

By Amara Osei

Brazil's National Congress has extended by 60 days the validity of the provisional measure (a presidential decree with immediate force of law, pending legislative approval) issued by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva that bans the operation, offering, intermediation and advertising of fixed-odds betting, known as bets, across the country. The decision was published in the Official Gazette of the Union (DOU) on Wednesday.

What did Congress actually decide?

Senate President Davi Alcolumbre (União Brasil-AP), who chairs the Congress's presiding board, formalized the extension as provided for in the Federal Constitution. The move is procedural, not a vote on the merits. It keeps the decree legally alive.

Lula sent the measure to the legislature on September 25. It took effect upon publication, but it must win approval in both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate to become permanent law. The 60-day extension buys time for that process — nothing more.

The decisive caveat: the joint committee charged with reviewing the measure has not yet been created. Only after the committee is installed can its members debate and vote on the text. If approved there, the measure moves to the full plenary votes in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. If the process is not completed within the validity period, the provisional measure lapses and loses its effect entirely.

In plain words: the ban stays on the books for now, but its permanence depends on a committee that does not yet exist.

Why the extension matters now

With the extension in place, the measure should now remain valid until next year, because statutory deadlines are frozen during the parliamentary recess. That calendar relief has a limit.

Members of the government's coalition are nonetheless racing against the clock to pass the measure within the current legislature, according to the source report. The urgency signals awareness that a lapse remains a real possibility if the committee drags.

The measure does two things:

• Prohibits the exploration, offering, intermediation and advertising of fixed-odds bets nationwide.
• Creates the Interinstitutional Oversight Committee for the Exploitation and Illegal Advertising of Fixed-Odds Betting, a body meant to police the ban.

Notably, the source is silent on how that oversight committee will be staffed, funded or timed — a gap marketers and operators should watch before assuming enforcement is imminent.

For brands and agencies still running betting-related campaigns in Brazil, the operative fact is simple: the prohibition remains in force today, and its legal footing now runs on a 60-day clock that the recess will pause. Whether it hardens into permanent statute — or expires — will be decided by a Congress that has yet to seat the committee responsible for the question.