Brazilian court hearing examines report on proposed betting restrictions
Regulation2 min read
In brief
- Brazil's Supreme Federal Court held a hearing on 3 November 2026 on betting lawsuits and Provisional Measure 1.394/2026.
- The measure, issued on 25 September, would prohibit betting operations, offers, intermediation and advertising.
- A fact-check says the report given to Fux was finalised before the measure and recommends gradual restriction.
Brazil's Supreme Federal Court held a public hearing on 3 November 2026, convened by justice Luiz Fux, on lawsuits over the fixed-odds betting market and Provisional Measure 1.394/2026. Lula issued the measure on 25 September to prohibit the operation, offering, intermediation and advertising of betting in Brazil.
The hearing was requested by the Attorney-General's Office (AGU), the plaintiffs in ADI 8.027 and entities admitted as amici curiae. Because Fux was already handling cases on betting regulation before the measure, the debate feeds into several proceedings and not only the one on the provisional measure, according to the report. Fux said at the opening of the session that first lady Janja Lula da Silva had given him a report on betting.
A fact-check of the document describes it as a study signed by Estúdio CLARICE and dated August 2026. The study runs to 120 pages in presentation format and was funded by Open Society Foundations, according to its technical sheet. Its quantitative survey, run by Instituto IDEIA, comprised 2,008 interviews conducted by mobile panel on 8 and 9 July 2026. The file's metadata show it was finalised on 14 August 2026, more than a month before the measure.
The fact-check concludes that the study recommends gradual restriction, the opposite of the total prohibition decreed by Lula. It says the measure banned sports betting and online games all at once, without stages or monitoring. The fact-check also says the survey shows 20% of adult Brazilian women currently bet. It argues that this does not match official data, citing a SPA-MF report that put regulated-market bettors at 25.2 million CPFs in 2025, 31.7% of them women. It describes the quantitative survey as an online, non-probability sample. The fact-check adds that, in the same survey, 41% of women and 47% of men agree that betting companies may keep operating in Brazil but should be barred from advertising.
According to the report, the AGU and Justice Minister Wellington César Lima e Silva presented their positions at the court. The report says government representatives left the session soon after speaking, without hearing the other invited participants, and that Janja Lula da Silva also left.