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.