STF suspends ruling on 1941 gambling ban in Brazil
Regulation2 min read
Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court suspended its appeal ruling on the validity of the 1941 gambling ban on 6 November, after judge Flávio Dino requested more time to examine related cases. The decision will be coordinated with challenges involving online betting and could affect at least 2,728 suspended lawsuits.
Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) postponed a ruling on an appeal over the validity of a 1941 ban on operating games of chance on Thursday, leaving at least 2,728 lawsuits on hold. Judge Flávio Dino requested more time to examine the case so it could be decided alongside related actions, including those concerning betting, and establish a comprehensive court position on gambling.
The ruling in Extraordinary Appeal 966177 will have implications for games of chance as a whole. The related actions include ADI 7721 and ADI 7723, which concern Betting Law 14.790/2023. A public hearing examined the impact of online betting in Brazil as part of the first of those challenges.
The case concerns whether the ban is compatible with the 1988 Constitution or conflicts with free enterprise and fundamental liberties. Under the 1941 law, operating games of chance in a public or publicly accessible place is a minor offence carrying a fine and a prison sentence of three months to one year in an open or semi-open regime.
Justice Luiz Fux, the appeal's rapporteur and the only judge to vote at the session, said the ban remained valid and that gambling profits from people's inability to assess the risks of their decisions. Fux said bettors could continue trying compulsively to reverse their losses and that betting operations could increase their inability to assess risk. He said individual liberties did not entitle people to act without limit when their health was harmed. He said rights were not absolute and that the legislature had to choose which rights to protect over others. Dino agreed that the ban was valid but said the ruling should cover newer forms of gambling, including electronic betting.
The Rio Grande do Sul prosecutor's office brought the appeal after a state appeals panel acquitted a person who operated slot machines in a bar in São Leopoldo. The panel held that, following the 1988 Constitution, operating games of chance could no longer be classed as a minor offence because that conflicted with individual liberties.