Brazil’s AGU asks Supreme Court to expand betting hearing participants

Brazil's Attorney-General's Office (AGU) filed a petition on 28 October with Justice Luiz Fux, rapporteur of ADI 8027, the action brought by ANJL against Provisional Measure 1,394/2026, asking him to widen the list of organisations invited to a public hearing scheduled for 4 November. The petition was signed by Isadora Maria Belem Rocha Cartaxo de Arruda, secretary-general for litigation, and Daniel Pincowscy Cardoso Martins de Andrade Alvim, a Union lawyer.

According to the petition, the hearing should widen the adversarial process and establish the truth of the facts, which the text calls one of the central ethical premises of the rule of law. The AGU said the list of 26 speakers set by Fux, including 11 sports entities and six representatives of operators, may make balanced expression of the different currents of opinion more difficult.

The AGU asked for the Brazilian National Conference of Bishops (CNBB), the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil (IECLB), Febraban, the Institute for Retail Development (IDV), IDEC and Dieese to be called. It also requested, in particular, the inclusion of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security.

The source reports that on 1 September the government gathered a selected group at the Planalto Palace to discuss the betting market, including the rapper Emicida and producer Paula Lavigne, as well as members of the Civil House, the Finance Ministry and the Sports Ministry. Febraban, CNI and CNC were also invited, with the confirmed presence of CNI president Ricardo Alban and Febraban president Isaac Sidney, according to the report. The meeting did not foresee the presence of representatives of betting companies, and bettors, football clubs, sports confederations, tourism entities and managers of public security funds were not called, the report said.

The report says the government issued the provisional measure prohibiting bets on 25 September, less than a month after that meeting. It also states that Fux ordered on 28 October that the Sports Ministry and the Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB) be notified.

The report says Febraban, IDV, IDEC and Dieese had already had their expertise validated, in the AGU's own words, at the hearing on ADI 7721 in November 2024, and that Febraban had also taken part in the 1 September meeting with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. It adds that CNC is the author of ADI 7721 against Law 14.790, the PGR is the author of ADI 7749, the Finance Ministry drafted the provisional measure and the AGU defends it, and that CNC and CNI attended the Planalto meeting.

The report says the request to include CNBB and IECLB is justified by the benevolent treatment of people affected by gambling addiction, and that the prohibition of bets was used as a campaign theme, including in Lula's letter to evangelical families. It adds that the Ministry of Justice and Public Security heads the National Public Security Fund, one of the legal beneficiaries that lost revenue with the prohibition, and that the ministry, with the Finance Ministry, held a press conference on 29 September about combating illegal betting.