Online betting regulation in Brazil 2026 with Law 14.790
On January 1, 2025, Brazil ceased to be one of the large iGaming markets without a clear legal framework and began operating under a federal regime of authorizations, supervision, and inspection. The centerpiece of this change is Law 14,790 of December 29, 2023, complemented by a set of ordinances and normative instructions that completed the system during 2024. This guide outlines, step by step, what the regulation says, how the authorization procedure works, what obligations it imposes on operators, what taxes the sector pays, and what balance the first year of the regulated market left.
The objective is to serve as a reference map for operators, providers, affiliates, lawyers, and analysts who need to understand the logic of the Brazilian model, without having to reconstruct it from dozens of scattered ordinances. The guide is organized into blocks ranging from the basics, what a fixed-odds bet is and why Brazil needed this law, to the more technical aspects, such as the tax structure, the requirements for licensees, and the control tools launched by the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting in 2025.
What is a fixed-odds bet and why Brazil needed Law 14,790
Law 14,790 defines a fixed-odds bet as one in which the player knows, at the time of betting, the factor by which their amount is multiplied if they win. On this basis, it distinguishes two possible objects: real events with a sports theme, i.e., competitions and tournaments organized by national or international entities, and virtual events of online games, where the result is determined by a random generator of numbers, symbols, figures, or objects. This second category expressly enables slots, casino games, and crash games within the regulated framework.
Before this law, Brazil had a general authorization for sports betting since Law 13,756 of 2018, but the operational regulation was missing and, above all, the framework for online casino. For years, the market operated with foreign operators accepting Brazilian players without a local license, without responsible gambling rules, without the obligation to prevent money laundering, and without paying taxes in the country. Law 14,790 closed this gap by requiring prior authorization from the Ministry of Finance for any exploitation of fixed-odds betting in Brazilian territory, whether virtual or physical.
Who regulates the market: the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting
The authority responsible for enforcing the law is the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting, known as SPA, formally created by Decree 11,907 of 2024 within the Ministry of Finance. The SPA concentrates the entire regulatory cycle: it defines the technical rules through ordinances and normative instructions, grants authorizations, supervises compliance, applies sanctions, and coordinates with other state agencies on matters of money laundering, sports integrity, and blocking illegal sites.
For operators and providers, understanding the role of the SPA is key because every relevant operational decision translates into an administrative act of this secretariat: the list of authorized companies, compliance deadlines, software certification requirements, reporting obligations, and fines for non-compliance. The reference regulation that structured the entire licensing process is Ordinance SPA/MF 827 of May 21, 2024, later adjusted by Ordinance SPA/MF 2,104/2024 and Normative Instruction SPA/MF 3/2025, which introduced provisional authorization.
How to obtain authorization to operate in Brazil
Authorization is a discretionary administrative act, granted by the Ministry of Finance based on the convenience and opportunity of national interest. It is highly personal, cannot be negotiated or transferred, and can be granted for a period of up to five years. The law sets a fixed grant consideration limited to a maximum of thirty million reais, a value that enables the exploitation of up to three commercial brands per license, each with its own website under the mandatory .bet.br domain.
To be eligible, the company must be incorporated in Brazil, have its headquarters and administration in the country, and have a Brazilian partner who owns at least twenty percent of the share capital. The law also requires proven knowledge and experience in gaming, betting, or lotteries in at least one of the members of the control group, the appointment of a director responsible to the SPA and a director responsible for customer service, national or international certification of the technological infrastructure, and participation in sports integrity monitoring bodies.
The four mandatory corporate policies
Law 14,790 conditions the obtaining and maintenance of the license on the implementation of four internal policies that must be documented and remain active throughout the useful life of the authorization. The first is the customer service and ombudsman policy, with formal channels for complaints and resolutions. The second is the policy for the prevention of money laundering, terrorist financing, and financing of weapons of mass destruction, aligned with articles 10 and 11 of Law 9,613 of 1998 and with Law 13,260 of 2016.
The third is the responsible gambling policy and prevention of pathological gambling disorder, a key area that gained prominence since the launch of the federal self-exclusion platform in December 2025. The fourth is the betting integrity policy and prevention of match-fixing and fraud, which obliges the operator to integrate into a national or international sports monitoring body. These four policies are not recommendations: they are enabling requirements and the SPA can review them at any time.
Taxation: how and how much is paid
The Brazilian tax model combines taxation on the operator and taxation on the player. On the GGR, defined as the balance between bets received and prizes paid, a rate destined for legal funds applies, which started at twelve percent during 2025 and which Congress approved to progressively increase to fifteen percent by 2028. This burden is added to the general corporate taxes paid by any Brazilian legal entity, which in practice increases the effective tax pressure on the regulated sector.
On the player's side, Article 31 of Law 14,790 sets a fifteen percent tax on the net prize obtained from fixed-odds bets, with a minimum exemption below which no tax is paid. The structure seeks a balance between channeling the market towards licensed operators and fiscal capture for the State, in line with European models such as the British or Spanish, although with a higher burden on individual prizes than most mature markets.
Advertising, integrity, and self-exclusion
The Brazilian advertising framework is one of the strictest in the region. The law prohibits presenting betting as a solution to financial problems, as a source of additional income, or as a form of investment, forbids using celebrities to suggest that gambling contributes to personal or social success, prohibits marketing aimed at minors, and requires the inclusion of warning messages about the risks of pathological gambling. Internet providers must block sites and remove applications of unauthorized operators after notification from the SPA, a mechanism that has already resulted in the blocking of more than twenty-five thousand illegal sites during the first year.
Regarding integrity, the operator must have systems to detect match-fixing, adopt actions to mitigate corruption in sports events, and declare bets linked to fraud null and void. The most recent piece of the system is the federal self-exclusion platform, online since December 12, 2025, which allows players to block all their accounts with authorized operators at once. In its first forty days, it received more than two hundred and seventeen thousand requests, which shows the real dimension of the compulsive gambling problem that the regulation tries to manage.
First year of regulated market: the 2025 balance
Data published by the SPA and the Ministry of Finance at the end of 2025 dimension the regulated Brazilian market as one of the largest in the world. Seventy-nine companies obtained authorization, twenty-five point two million Brazilians placed bets during the year, sixty-eight point three percent of bettors are men and thirty-one point seven percent are women, and the predominant age group is thirty-one to forty years old, with twenty-eight point six percent of the total.
In economic terms, the projected GGR for 2025 reached thirty-seven billion reais. The SPA collected approximately two point five billion reais in authorization fees and ninety-five point five million in inspection fees paid by operators. The activity generated ten thousand direct jobs and five thousand five hundred indirect jobs. On the control front, the SPA registered one hundred and thirty-two sanctioning cases against one hundred and thirty-three companies, closed four hundred and twelve cases for illegal advertising on social networks together with Conar, and achieved the removal of three hundred and twenty-four influencer profiles and two hundred and twenty-nine irregular publications.
What's coming in 2026 and why it matters for Latin America
The 2025-2026 Regulatory Agenda published by the SPA through Ordinance SPA/MF 817/2025 anticipates the next focuses: deepening the National Betting System, better coordination with states and the Federal District, improving the model of remuneration for the use of athletes' image, and advances in the regulation of predictive markets, which were already the subject of specific bills in the Brazilian Congress during the first semester. Secretary Regis Dudena stated that inspection will continue to intensify and that the priority shifts from ordering the market to sustaining its operational integrity.
For Latin America, the Brazilian case serves as an essential reference. Brazil is the first market in the region that combines a volume of players comparable to mature European markets with a robust legal architecture, federal self-exclusion, active inspection against illegal advertising, and a tax scheme calibrated not to push licensed operators into the gray market. Countries like Chile, Peru, Colombia, Argentina, and Mexico are observing how the model evolves to define their own frameworks, and providers already operating in Brazil are using this experience as a basis for regional expansion, which makes Law 14,790 more than a national norm: it is the new regulatory reference for iGaming in LatAm.
Tags: Brazil, Brazil regulation, Law 14.790, SPA, Brazil online betting, iGaming LatAm, Brazil responsible gaming