I won at Vasco, but Brazil loses at the recreational betting game.

For over 40 days I didn't place a bet. It wasn't for lack of trying. It was consistency. Like millions of Brazilians, I only bet on legal sites that have a CNPJ (Brazilian tax ID), a license from the Ministry of Finance, a ".bet.br" address, responsible gaming tools, and a regulator to complain to. Since Provisional Measure No. 1.394/2026 came into effect and the licenses were revoked on October 25th, this bettor has been left without a place to play.

In the early hours of this Sunday (8), four minutes after midnight, I did what I hadn't done in weeks. I opened the betting site and bet R$ 80 on Vasco's victory over Palmeiras, with odds of 2,69. It was a legal bet. The decision of the president of the TRF3 that suspended the injunction of CDA Gaming came out on Friday (6), but the company will only be notified on Monday. Until then, the judicial authorization remains valid, and the betting site continues to be the only regulated betting site operating in the country. At 17 pm the ball rolled, Vasco won and the ticket turned into R$ 215,20.

I insist on showing the receipt. In almost every report, editorial, or speech about betting in Brazil, the bettor only appears in one way: indebted, addicted, a victim. These stories exist and deserve attention, and it was precisely to deal with them that regulation created rules, limits, and protection. But there is another type of bettor, much more numerous and almost never heard. It's the one who bets little, for fun, to cheer more passionately for their team, and who sometimes wins. This one doesn't make headlines. Today, they are here, with a screenshot in hand.

The joy was short-lived. Soon after, the platform itself instructed me to withdraw the funds. The betting site will go offline at 9 am this Monday (9), when it is notified of the decision of the president of the TRF3, judge Luis Antonio Johonsom di Salvo. Until that time, the company will return all the bettors' balances to the accounts from which the deposits came. On Friday night (6), the judge suspended the injunction that guaranteed the operation of CDA Gaming, repeating what he had already done with Stake in October.

This detail speaks volumes. In a regulated operation, the bettor knows who is on the other side and receives their money back in an account registered under their own CPF (Brazilian individual taxpayer registration number), even when the company is forced to close down. On an illegal site, when it disappears, the balance disappears too, and the bettor has no regulator, CNPJ (Brazilian company taxpayer registration number), or Brazilian justice system to turn to. This is the environment that prohibition is pushing those who want to gamble towards.

With this, Brazil loses something that took years to build: a regulated company that paid a license, collected taxes, identified bettors, blocked minors, and answered to a regulatory body. It was the last one. Starting Monday, the country will have no legal betting sites operating. Those who want to bet will continue to bet, but on unlicensed sites, without oversight, without limits, and without anyone to turn to.

The recreational gambler is the one who loses the most. He didn't ask to be protected from his own enjoyment. He asked for a safe environment to pursue it, and that environment existed until October 25th.

Even so, I remain optimistic. The provisional measure still needs to pass through Congress, the Supreme Court will still rule on the lawsuits against it, and the Federal Courts have shown more than once that they see weaknesses in the measure. Luck was kind to me this Sunday, and I hope that reason will be kind to the country in the coming weeks.

Thanks, Vasco! Thanks, betting site!

The game is either legal or illegal; not playing is impossible. Starting at 9 AM this Monday in Brazil, it will once again be solely illegal.

Magnho José is the editor of BNLData.