President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced in a national radio and television broadcast on 30 April 2026 that participants in the Novo Desenrola Brasil debt-renegotiation programme will be blocked from all online betting platforms for one year. The programme is due to launch on Monday 4 May.
Lula said in the broadcast that “what cannot happen is to renegotiate a debt and keep losing money betting on bets”, adding that “whoever joins the new Desenrola Brasil will be blocked for one year on all online betting platforms”. He framed the rule as a measure to protect women who he said were left to pay off betting debts run up by their husbands.
Under the rules announced by the presidency, the programme allows holders of overdue credit-card balances, overdraft facilities, revolving credit, personal loans and student loan debts under the Fundo de Financiamento Estudantil (Fies) to renegotiate at a maximum interest rate of 1.99% per month. Discounts on the total debt range from 30% to 90% and participants can withdraw up to 20% of their balance in the Fundo de Garantia do Tempo de Serviço (FGTS) severance fund to settle debts.
The block on betting platforms will operate at the level of the participant’s CPF taxpayer identification number. The presidency did not publish a draft rule with the announcement and said operational details would follow at the launch on 4 May.
Finance Minister Dario Durigan had already told reporters after a meeting with the Workers’ Party (PT) caucus in the Chamber of Deputies in late April that the new version of Desenrola needed counterparts for participants and that the economic team was studying both monetary limits on betting expenditure and restrictions on new bet-related expenses. Durigan said it made no sense to settle one debt only for the participant to incur a new one through bets.
Pressure on Brazil’s licensed betting market is mounting. Last month the leader of the Workers’ Party bloc in the Chamber of Deputies, Pedro Uczai, filed Bill 1,808/2026, which would ban the operation, offer, promotion and intermediation of fixed-odds bets nationwide. The bill would revoke parts of Laws 13,756 of 2018 and 14,790 of 2023, which set the legal framework for sports betting and online gaming.
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President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced in a national radio and television broadcast on 30 April 2026 that participants in the Novo Desenrola Brasil debt-renegotiation programme will be blocked from all online betting platforms for one year. The programme is due to launch on Monday 4 May. Lula said in the broadcast that “what…
The post Brazil bars Desenrola debt-relief participants from betting for one year appeared first on G3 Newswire.