Brazil's Licensed Betting Sector Navigates Taxation Debate as Market Enters Second Year
Jacob Mitchell 
Key Takeaways
- Brazil's regulated betting market generated R$36.1 billion in gross gaming revenue during its first year of formal operation in 2025.
- A proposed 15% deposit levy attached to the Anti-Faction Bill (PL 5,582/2025) was debated in Congress and ultimately removed by the Chamber of Deputies in February 2026.
- A separate gradual GGR tax increase, from 12% in 2025 to 13% in 2026 under Complementary Law 224/2025 — is already in effect, with further increases to 15% planned by 2028.
- Industry associations have raised concerns that increased tax pressure could affect the competitive balance between licensed and unlicensed operators.
The transition of Brazil's betting market has been one of the more closely watched developments in global iGaming over the past two years. The country's first year of formal operation, which ran through 2025, delivered a number of measurable results: more than R$36.1 billion in gross gaming revenue according to official figures from the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA), more than 25 million unique registered players, and a tripling of formal employment in the sector since Law No. 14,790/2023 came into effect. As the market entered its second year, a sustained legislative debate around taxation has drawn significant attention from operators, regulators, and industry associations.
The Anti-Faction Bill and the Deposit Tax Debate
Bill No. 5,582/2025, known as the Anti-Faction Bill, became one of the central pieces of legislation discussed in the sector during the second half of 2025 and into 2026. As modified by the Senate, the bill included the creation of a 15% Contribution of Intervention in the Economic Domain, referred to as CIDE-Bets, applied directly to bettor deposits made on licensed platforms rather than to gross gaming revenue. The Senate approved this version of the bill in December 2025, attaching the deposit levy as a funding mechanism for public security.
The proposed mechanism prompted an immediate response from industry associations and a Parliamentary Front for the Free Market, which argued that applying a 15% charge at the point of deposit would directly disadvantage licensed platforms relative to unlicensed alternatives, where no equivalent charge exists. In February 2026, the Chamber of Deputies voted to remove the CIDE-Bets provision from the final text of the Anti-Faction Bill, which subsequently passed and was signed into law without the deposit tax. Speaker of the House Hugo Motta confirmed that an agreement had been reached to pass the legislation without the betting tax component, and stated that changes to sector taxation should be addressed through a separate legislative process.
In an interview with CasinoRank, Plínio Lemos Jorge, President of the Associação Nacional de Jogos e Loterias (ANJL), outlined the association's position on the broader tax debate. He described 2025 as a year in which the regulated market had at various points been discussed as a mechanism for addressing broader fiscal pressures, and expressed concern that insufficiently calibrated measures could undermine the transparency and sustainability objectives the regulatory framework was designed to achieve. Research cited by industry associations during the period indicated that restricting access to licensed platforms for certain groups, particularly beneficiaries of social programmes, risked redirecting those users to unlicensed alternatives rather than reducing engagement overall.
GGR Tax Increases Already in Effect
While the CIDE-Bets deposit levy was ultimately removed from the Anti-Faction Bill, a separate and significant change to sector taxation is already in place. Complementary Law 224/2025, signed into law by President Lula in December 2025, established a phased increase in the GGR tax applied to licensed betting operators. The rate rose from 12% in 2025 to 13% in 2026, with further increases to 14% in 2027 and 15% from 2028 onward. The Brazilian Federal Revenue Service collected approximately R$9.95 billion in taxes from licensed operators in 2025 and projects collections of between R$11 billion and R$13 billion for 2026.
Industry bodies have engaged with this rate progression as a structural matter, noting that the existing tax burden carried by licensed operators already encompasses corporate income taxes, social contributions, and sector-specific levies in addition to the GGR rate. The concern raised consistently by ANJL and similar bodies is that further cost increases affect the competitive dynamics between the licensed and unlicensed markets, a concern supported by estimates indicating that between 41% and 51% of total Brazilian betting activity may still occur outside licensed platforms.
Market Scale and Long-Term Sustainability
The scale of the licensed betting sector's first-year performance has been a consistent element of the industry's engagement with the legislative process. Beyond the R$36.1 billion in GGR, the sector currently accounts for approximately 10,000 direct jobs and 5,000 indirect roles, with average salaries significantly above the national average. Licensed operators paid approximately R$2.5 billion in licensing fees and generated close to R$10 billion in tax revenue during 2025, making the sector one of the more notable contributors to federal revenue in its first year of formal operation.
Speaking with CasinoRank, Jorge described the sector's long-term sustainability as dependent on three conditions: effective engagement with unlicensed activity, regulatory stability that supports ongoing investment across betting and online casino games, and an economic environment that keeps compliant operators commercially viable. ANJL partnered with Anatel's Inspection Superintendence and the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets in 2025 to implement an automated system for identifying and addressing unlicensed gambling websites, a measure Jorge described as a meaningful step in the approach to market integrity. The 2026 FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico, represents the regulated market's first major international tournament test, with significant attention on whether the licensed framework can effectively capture the associated demand.
