Brazil bill would criminalise betting operations and promotion

Do not treat PL 5.477/2026 as a current criminal obligation. Brazil’s Executive has submitted the bill to Congress, but its proposed offences will require approval before they become law.

The Senado Federal report distinguishes the bill from MP 1.394/2026, which provisionally prohibits bets and is already in force. The immediate compliance decision is therefore to map the conduct named in PL 5.477/2026 without treating the proposal as an enacted criminal regime, and to monitor its first formal action in the Câmara dos Deputados.

Five offences extend the proposed perimeter

PL 5.477/2026 would make five forms of conduct criminal: operating fixed-odds betting, advertising bets or soliciting bettors, using personal data to solicit bettors, financially facilitating the activity and providing an internet application for betting.

Operating or conducting fixed-odds betting would carry four to six years of imprisonment and a fine. The other listed conduct would carry two to four years and a fine. The bill would also require the economic advantage obtained from the betting activity to be considered when fines are set.

The proposal therefore reaches conduct beyond operation itself. Its listed offences cover promotion, bettor acquisition, specified data use, financial facilitation and the provision of an internet application. The source does not define how each offence would apply to particular arrangements, so the bill’s text is the relevant perimeter to map rather than a basis for treating those roles as criminally liable today.

The proposed penalties would increase in several circumstances. The Senate report identifies online gambling such as Tigrinho, the use of health data that could indicate gambling-related disorders, betting histories or information about children and adolescents, and the circumvention of age or location checks. It also identifies arrangements in which a promoter receives a percentage of bets or losses.

The government said the proposal is intended to address the means companies use to maintain betting activity, including through digital channels. That stated objective explains why the bill lists several points in the activity’s chain, but it does not settle how the offences would be interpreted or applied.

The proposal contains a specific exception. It would not apply to Loteca, the Caixa Econômica Federal sports lottery for predicting football results, which would remain permitted under the text described by the Senate.

Federal investigation depends on enactment

If enacted, the bill would treat all listed offences as crimes against the interest of the Union. The Polícia Federal would investigate them and the Justiça Federal would hear the cases.

That allocation is part of the proposed mechanism, not a current consequence of submitting the bill. The source does not specify the evidentiary threshold for operation, promotion, data use, financial facilitation or application provision. Nor does it explain how any aggravating circumstance would be established in an individual case.

The distinction between the provisional measure and the bill is therefore central. MP 1.394/2026 supplies the current prohibition described by the Senate report; PL 5.477/2026 supplies a proposed criminal framework that still requires congressional approval. The report does not establish that the bill has changed current obligations for any named activity.

The proposal’s design would give federal criminal authorities jurisdiction over the conduct it defines if the text becomes law. It would not, on the supplied evidence, answer whether a particular service falls within one of those definitions. That question remains tied to the wording Congress ultimately approves.

For operators and other organisations examining the proposal, the practical control is conduct mapping. The relevant categories are the five listed offences, the proposed aggravating circumstances and the exception for Loteca. That exercise should preserve the legal status distinction: the bill is pending, while the prohibition in the MP is provisional.

Câmara review is the next test

The Senate report places the first stage of PL 5.477/2026 in the Câmara dos Deputados, after which the text would be analysed by senators. It does not identify a committee assignment, committee report, scheduled vote, amendments or commencement provision.

Those omissions leave the proposal’s final perimeter open. Congress could alter the offences, penalties, aggravating circumstances or Loteca exception, while the enacted text would determine when any new criminal provisions begin to apply.

The first formal action in the Câmara will test whether the bill has moved beyond submission into an identifiable legislative process. A committee assignment or report would provide the next evidence of how its provisions are being examined.

The enacted wording and any commencement provision would then determine whether the proposed perimeter changes. Until those materials exist, PL 5.477/2026 should be treated as a pending proposal, not a current criminal obligation.