Brazil’s PGR asks Supreme Court to pause challenges to betting ban
Regulation2 min read
In brief
- Brazil's prosecutor-general Paulo Gonet asked the Supreme Court to suspend nationwide challenges to Provisional Measure 1.394/2026.
- Gonet cited legal uncertainty and asymmetric application of the betting ban.
- Justice Luiz Fux, the rapporteur, had not ruled on the request by publication.
- The measure's initial deadline ends on 23 November and it expires on 4 March 2027 if not voted.
Paulo Gonet, the prosecutor-general of Brazil, went to the Supreme Federal Court with a request to halt, across the whole country, the lawsuits contesting the constitutionality of Provisional Measure 1.394/2026, the text that banned fixed-odds betting. The filing reached the court on the night of Friday 6 November and was directed to Justice Luiz Fux, who is the rapporteur of the betting cases there. As of the closing of the report, no decision from Fux had been issued.
Gonet said the spread of cases on the measure, when the matter is already before the Supreme Court, creates a situation of legal uncertainty and asymmetric application of the rule. The prosecutor-general's office wants all the actions stayed until the Supreme Court gives a final ruling. Gonet cited as an example a decision by judge Adriana Pileggi of the Federal Regional Court of the 3rd Region allowing CDA Gaming to resume the Casa de Apostas, Betsul and Jogo Online brands. That injunction was overturned the same day by the president of the court, judge Luis Antonio Johonsom Di Salvo, at the request of the Advocate-General of the Union.
After the provisional measure, platforms and the ANJL filed 19 actions in the federal courts, the report stated. Of that total, 14 went to the TRF-3 and five to the TRF-1, according to the report. The few injunctions that favoured the companies were suspended by the presidency of the TRF-3 at the Union's request, the report said. That happened with Stake in October and again with CDA Gaming on the Friday, according to the report.
In a session this week, after the public hearing on betting, Fux told colleagues he would need more time to prepare his vote. He said that in addition to four actions against Law 14.790/2023, another four now challenge the restriction measures, which has widened the arguments. Fux also supported hearing the betting cases together with the actions on municipal lotteries, a proposal backed by Flavio Dino and Kassio Nunes Marques and signalled by court president Edson Fachin.
According to the report, the government issued the provisional measure on 25 September prohibiting an activity it had regulated and authorised through the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting. Companies paid licence fees of R$30m each, the report said. The measure's initial deadline ends on 23 November, with automatic extension, and it expires on 4 March 2027 if not voted, according to the report.