Brazil is returning R$1.325 billion in bettor balances

Who gets a balance back after Brazil switched off its licensed betting sites? About 26.5 million bettors are owed R$1.325 billion, and the Ministry of Justice and Public Security said on October 6, 2026 that banks were to return the money between October 9 and October 14.

Voluntary withdrawals closed at 23:59 on October 5. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed Provisional Measure 1,394 on September 25, prohibiting fixed-odds sports betting and online casino games.

What operators had to send the banks

Article 7 of the measure, in the Diário Oficial da União of September 25, told operators to take sites and apps offline ten days later. The October 6 notice calls that the first day without licensed betting. Of 188 authorised sites, only one was still up on October 5.

"O Governo Federal identificou que, entre os 188 sites que operavam com autorização até esta segunda-feira, apenas um ainda está em funcionamento," the Ministry of Justice and Public Security said. A block on the remaining site had already been requested. (Ministry of Justice and Public Security)

Article 8 gives operators two days. They must hold enough cash for a full repayment and send the bank, and the Secretaria de Prêmios e Apostas (SPA), a list that ties each bettor's Cadastro de Pessoas Físicas (CPF) number to the sum on the deposit account. The cash stays segregated from the operator's own assets. A miss costs R$200,000 a day until it is fixed. (Provisional Measure 1,394)

Portaria 3,005/2026, issued by the SPA on October 2, turns that handover into a filing. Through the Sistema de Gestão de Apostas (Sigap), balances as at 23:59 on October 5 have to reach the secretariat by October 7. Wider financial obligations from the licensed period run to December 15, 2026. (Ministry of Finance)

Most accounts hold less than R$1

An SPA bulletin cited in the October 6 notice puts the unpaid stock at R$1.325 billion for about 26.5 million bettors. It also says 86.2 million accounts hold between R$0.01 and R$0.99, together worth R$15.5 million. One person can hold accounts on more than one platform, so accounts outnumber bettors.

Small balances explain the headcount better than the money. R$15.5 million does not add up to R$1.325 billion, so a much thinner group of accounts is carrying most of what the banks have been told to move.

A sum under R$1 is easy to abandon, and the measure still requires it back. Open bets whose result was not in at shutdown are void, and article 7 bars any deduction from the stake. Getting that money back is narrower than a lawsuit over historic losses, the claim the Dutch Supreme Court refused for the pre-2021 period.

Caixa takes a transfer the bank cannot finish

Article 9 gives the bank seven days from receipt of that list. Payment should reach an active account in the bettor's name, preferably the one the deposits left.

That October 6 bulletin puts the bank leg on October 9 to October 14. From October 14, any sum that hit an impediment moves to Caixa Econômica Federal. The SPA's explainer of the same measure still says Caixa's role starts on October 15. (Secretariat of Prizes and Betting)

Those two dates are not two different debts. Article 9 counts seven days from receipt of the list, not from a morning fixed in a press note.

Authorisations end on October 25 without a fee refund

Article 4 ends authorisations granted under Law 14,790 of December 29, 2023 thirty days after publication. From September 25, that is October 25, 2026. The grant fee is not refunded, and there is no compensation. Article 6 bars new authorisations, and applications still open on September 25 fall away. Agents based abroad are covered if they take bets from people in Brazil.

Congress has to convert the measure or watch it lapse. Under article 62 of the Constitution a provisional measure has the force of law, then loses it if it is not converted within sixty days of publication. The clock pauses in a recess and can be extended once. The October 25 extinctions are not on that clock. Relations already formed stay governed by the measure unless Congress decrees otherwise.

Between September 25 and October 6 the ministry's Ciberlab unit and the SPA referred 13,241 illegal sites for blocking, about 1,103 a day. Unlicensed balances are not on those CPF lists. The UK Gambling Commission stood up an illegal-markets unit for that leakage.

"As contas com saldos elevados serão investigadas para apurar eventual lavagem de dinheiro e possíveis vínculos com organizações criminosas," the Ministry of Justice and Public Security said on October 6. A calendar for ordinary balances does not, on that notice, clear a large one. (Ministry of Justice and Public Security)

This article is informational analysis only and is not gambling or financial advice. Figures are as attributed in the text.

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