Brazil Banks Return More Than R$1 Billion to Bettors After Online Betting Shutdown

Brazil’s financial institutions are completing the return of balances left on betting platforms affected by Provisional Measure 1,394/2026, with more than R1 billion already refunded and around R159 million still outstanding ahead of the October 14 deadline.

Brazilian banks and financial institutions are approaching the final stage of a large-scale refund process launched after the shutdown of online betting platforms affected by Provisional Measure No. 1,394/2026.

When the mandatory refund phase began on October 9, around R$1.325 billion remained in betting accounts belonging to approximately 26.5 million people. Operators were required to provide financial institutions with each customer’s remaining balance, CPF identification and the bank account originally used to fund the betting account.

The process has advanced quickly. By October 10, more than R$1 billion had already been returned, while the outstanding amount had fallen to approximately R$159 million, according to data submitted to the federal government. The remaining balances covered about 22.5 million bettors across 70.5 million accounts, many of them containing only very small amounts.

Banks have until October 14 to transfer the remaining funds directly to customers. The payments are made to the banking accounts previously used to deposit money with the platforms, meaning the federal government is supervising the process rather than paying bettors directly.

For cases where operational problems prevent a normal bank refund, the Ministry of Finance says Caixa Econômica Federal will step in from October 15 to intermediate outstanding payments. The government has also warned customers against messages requesting fees, passwords or banking codes in exchange for releasing their balances.

The refund programme forms part of the transition created by MP 1,394/2026, which prohibited fixed-odds betting across Brazil, including sports betting and online games. Voluntary withdrawals directly from platforms ended on October 5, and the affected websites and applications began going offline the following day.

The rapid return of more than R1 billion shows that Brazil has moved beyond the initial shut down phase into the financial settlemen of the former regulated market.Attention will now turn to the remaining R159 million and to the smaller group of cases that may require intervention by Caixa after the banking deadline.