The so called "bets" were authorised to operate in Brazil in 2018 via law 13.756/2018, in the first year of Jair Bolsonaro's presidency.
Jair Bolsonaro, who was found guilty of Federal crimes and is paying his sentence under house arrest due to frail health, is the father of Flávio Bolsonaro, main adversary of incumbent President Lula da Silva.
So it is in fact the opposite of what you described.
In 2018, the president was Michel Temer, not Bolsonaro. Temer had been Dilma Rousseff's vice president and took office after she was impeached in 2016. Dilma, by the way, was Lula's handpicked successor. That December, Temer signed Law 13.756, which legalized sports betting but left the regulation for later.
That regulation came under Lula: on December 29, 2023, he signed Law 14.790, which set a licensing fee of up to R$ 30 million and authorized betting companies to operate legally in Brazil.
So, technically speaking, it started with a president elected on Dilma's ticket and was sealed by Lula.
lmao, this is amazing...
And since you mentioned Bolsonaro's prison term in relation to basically nothing in the original comment, I think it's fair to mention Lula has also served a substantial prison term for what is probably the most massive corruption scheme in all of history, and had been released so he could run again though judicial maneuvering by a corrupt supreme court.
It was definitely not the most massive corruption scheme in all of history. That's a lot of hyperbole or just you parroting the old propaganda used at the time.
Nonetheless, Brazilian politics is all incredibly corrupt and nothing will improve about it in the foreseeable future, it's only getting worse.
People called me crazy back then.
In 2018 the president was indeed Michel Temer, who was Dilma Roussef's vice-president. Temer led a coup against his President.
In any case, Temer was opposition to Lula and Dilma's Worker's Party so the main point stands.
This was introduced and regulated as a way, i assume, to get taxes from those betting business, and everything was in fact legalized and regulated in the current government that was struggling with money. I saw a lot of people spending all of their money on that stuff and get broke. I have not heard a single thing about prohibiting that until very recently, and it's a great example of how the short-term memory of people can be exploited for social engineering (or political campaigns, they are very similar). It would be great if that was, in fact, enabled in the previous government so the current one would have prohibited years ago but we all know that this isn't what happened. At least it is going away and it's a net positive, but do not forget those who wanted to profit from it.