TLDR Lawyer Luiz Felipe Maia says Brazil’s betting ban is politically motivated and will be reversed. President Lula announced the ban in late September through a provisional measure. Maia estimates the ban will cost Brazil BRL15 billion ($2.99 billion) in yearly revenue. The Attorney General’s Office is seeking BRL3.6 billion in damages and health costs from operators. Maia warns the ban could push 30 million bettors to illegal gambling sites.
A well-known Brazilian lawyer says the country’s new ban on betting will not hold up. Luiz Felipe Maia, of the firm Maia Yoshiyasu Advogados, believes Congress and the courts will reverse the decision.
Maia spoke to iGaming Business during the SBC Lisbon event. He called the ban politically motivated and said it creates distrust toward Brazil.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced the ban in late September. It was issued through a provisional measure, a type of temporary decree.
Lawyer Calls Ban an Election Move
Maia said the timing of the ban shows it was meant to win votes. He pointed out that the measure was issued without a fiscal impact study.
Lula had warned that he would ban betting if the industry did not develop properly. In a speech, the president spoke about people who took their own lives because of debt.
Maia said the government never checked whether that debt was really caused by gambling. He called the ban “very cheap opportunism.”
He also compared betting to other industries. He asked whether Brazil would shut down mining after environmental disasters, or close brewer Ambev because of drunk driving deaths.
Maia said companies paid BRL30 million each for a licence. They operated under rules set by the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets, known as the SPA, starting in 2025.
He praised those rules, saying Brazil’s