Politicians in Brazil gave betting companies breathing room this week. The controversial CIDE-Bets measure vote got pushed to 2026. Lawmakers postponed voting on the Antifaction Bill during Monday’s meeting. This bill contains a 15% tax on gambling deposits in Brazil. The delay affects PL 5,582/2025 legislation completely. Government and opposition parties both supported this postponement decision. Senate members approved the original bill just last week. The proposal would tax all player deposits on licensed platforms at 15%. The National Public Security Fund would receive these tax revenues directly.

Officials calculated BRL30 billion ($5.5 billion) in yearly revenue from this measure. Government budget gaps need this additional funding urgently. The bill included another controversial provision called RERCT Litígio Zero Bets. Operators would pay 15% retrospective tax on pre-regulation activities from 2018 to 2024. Workers’ Party leader Lindbergh Farias explained the postponement reasoning clearly. This controversial topic requires more debate, he stated.

Deposit Tax Faces Strong Industry Opposition

The Brazilian Institute of Responsible Gaming (IBJR) attacked the CIDE-Bets tax proposal harshly. Illegal operators would gain the greatest competitive advantage ever seen, they warned. IBJR raised concerns about sector sustainability under retrospective tax collection rules. Licensed operators face unfair treatment compared to illegal competitors. The institute explained the mathematical problem with deposit taxation clearly. BRL100 becomes worth only BRL85 at legal companies after taxation. Black market operators keep the full BRL100 value for players. This creates a direct incentive to migrate to illegal market operations.

Financial calculations don’t support the government’s revenue projections either. Officials expect BRL30 billion annually from the formal market, generating BRL36 billion currently. Tax collection nearly equals the entire regulated sector revenue mathematically. This makes formal economic activity impossible to sustain properly. Colombia shows what happens when deposit taxes go badly wrong. Their market introduced a 19% value-added tax on deposits in February. The Colombian Federation of Gaming Entrepreneurs (Fecoljuegos) reported a disaster months later. Online GGR in Colombia dropped 30% after tax implementation.

Additional Tax Measures Face Delays, Too

Brazil’s legal betting sector received more good news recently. Another document proposing gradual operator tax increases stalled unexpectedly. The Senate plenary hasn’t analysed this proposal yet. PL 5,473/2025 suggested raising the current 12% tax rate progressively. Rates would hit 15% during the 2026 and 2027 periods. The tax would reach 18% by 2028 eventually. The Senate’s Economic Affairs Committee approved this bill on December 2. The Chamber of Deputies is expected to receive it for final approval. An appeal secured eight signatures blocking immediate progress, however. The bill won’t advance before the government recess starts this month, likely.