State-owned bank Caixa Econômica Federal has abandoned the 2026 launch of its planned sports-betting platform BetCaixa. The announcement of the platform — originally expected before the 2026 World Cup — has been pushed to 2027 if it happens at all.
Caixa Loterias S.A., the bank’s lottery subsidiary, obtained authorisation from the Prizes and Bets Secretariat (SPA) at the Finance Ministry under Portaria SPA/MF 1,665, published in the Diário Oficial on 30 July 2025. The authorisation covered three brands: BetCaixa, MegaBet and Xbet Caixa. The bank paid a BRL 30 million federal licence fee.
In December 2024, Caixa Loterias’ selection committee named the consortium Playtech – VS Technology as the winning bidder for the technology provider contract, awarding it 50,125 points across the assessed criteria. Caixa president Carlos Vieira had previously projected revenues of BRL 18 billion over the platform’s first two years.
The Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) has opened a procedural review of the rollout. Minister Jhonatan de Jesus signed a decision on 27 March 2026 admitting the lottery federation Febralot as an interested party. He gave the bank five working days to provide factual, technical and administrative justifications for the lack of commercial activity, and 15 days to submit further documentation. Febralot estimates that physical lottery agents could lose around BRL 6 million a year if the online platform launches.
The news comes in the context of a push against online gambling from the government. On 14 April 2026, 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.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has now publicly opposed online betting on several occasions. Meanwhile, former Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said the party had been closing in on the online betting sector, describing it as a public-health problem.
Opposition to a Caixa run betting platform has also been growing. In October in a speech in the Senate Plenary Senator Damares Alves criticized the decision of Caixa Econômica Federal to launch its own online betting platform. According to her, the initiative undermined the social function of this public bank and would pose a risk to Brazilian families by promoting gambling addiction among the most vulnerable populations.
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State-owned bank Caixa Econômica Federal has abandoned the 2026 launch of its planned sports-betting platform BetCaixa. The announcement of the platform — originally expected before the 2026 World Cup — has been pushed to 2027 if it happens at all. Caixa Loterias S.A., the bank’s lottery subsidiary, obtained authorisation from the Prizes and Bets Secretariat…
The post Caixa abandons 2026 launch of online betting appeared first on G3 Newswire.