Rio de Janeiro bans gambling advertising on public roads
The Rio de Janeiro City Council published Decree 58,274 of 2026 on Monday, July 13, prohibiting the display of advertising for betting platforms in public spaces within the municipality. The ban applies to all locations that require a City Council permit to display advertising, and the municipal administration explained that the objective is to protect the urban landscape.
The Executive also argued that the measure seeks to reduce the exposure of children and adolescents to online gambling platform advertising. Companies in the sector will not be able to display logos, names, or slogans, nor promote applications, websites, or advertising campaigns, even at events promoted by the municipal government. Mayor Eduardo Cavaliere maintained that the city will not accept the use of outdoor advertising, regulated by the municipality and belonging to all residents, to promote an activity that, in his words, led to indebtedness and the destruction of families. According to the decree, the Office of Licensing and Inspection Coordination will be responsible for its enforcement and may order the removal of illegal advertisements and impose sanctions.
The measure raised legal questions. Via LinkedIn, lawyer Fabio Ferreira Couto, from Carvalho Couto Advogados, questioned the constitutionality of the decree and argued that it is an example of how the eagerness to gain electoral advantage can override the Federal Constitution and stifle the business environment. For the specialist, the municipality would be encroaching on a competence that exclusively belongs to the federal government, since fixed-odds betting was regulated by federal laws 13,756 of 2018 and 14,790 of 2023, meaning a municipality would not have the power to impose a total ban on advertising for an activity authorized at the national level.
Ferreira Couto also stated that the decree equates regulated operators with illegal platforms, and recalled that the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting has already established specific rules for advertising in the sector, with warnings about financial risks and measures against abusive advertising. In his opinion, the measure would primarily harm authorized companies that have invested in sports sponsorships and comply with their tax obligations, while illegal operators continue to operate in the shadows of the digital environment.
Tags: Decree 58.274, Eduardo Cavaliere, betting advertising in Rio de Janeiro, Fabio Ferreira Couto