Supreme Court suspends legal challenges against Brazil gambling ban

Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court (STF) has suspended further proceedings around President Lula da Silva’s federal ban on online betting while awaiting a ruling on the measure’s constitution. In Brasilia, news breaks that Justice Luiz Fux has granted an appeal from Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet, who seeks to end bilateral rulings that have granted permission to certain firms to continue to offer online betting services. Fux reportedly wants to ensure legal clarity and certainty around the high-risk topic of gambling and the president’s desire to ban it via Provisional Measure (PM) 1,394/2026, announced by Lula on 25 September. Following Lula’s announcement, Brazil’s Congress initiated its 120-day review of the PM while betting firms were given a short timeframe to close shop. However, exceptions were made for some companies early on, enabling these firms to continue conducting business. CDA Gaming was granted permissions by lower court rulings to continue to operate its portfolio of Casa de Apostas, BetSul and Jogo Online. Stake was also briefly allowed to continue operating until the day of the presidential election run-offs, 25 October, but this was quickly quashed. The Supreme Court has since been flooded with appeals from trade bodies arguing that Lula measure unfairly suspended a regulated market. A three-day hearing held last week saw a range of opinions from across Brazilian government, business and society aired to Justice Fux. Industry trade bodies and their allies in other areas of commerce and politics view the President’s intervention as a ‘constitutional infringement’ in violation of “legal certainty, free competition and due process”. Fux wants clear air on Brazil betting deliberations As such the market and laws of the ‘Bets regime’, which takes its name from the ‘Bets Law’ signed off by Lula in late 2024, should still be available to licensed operators as Congress determines whether to pass the measure, suspend it or apply necessary revisions or modifications. However, this morning, Fux issued an ‘interim decision’ suspending lower-court proceedings from challenging the provisional measure. The Justice believes that “:conflicting rulings risked creating legal uncertainty” which would allow some operators to resume business while others remained prohibited. The decision seeks to ensure consistent application of the rules of Brazil’s highest legal court charged with determining whether Lula’s ban is constitutional. Fux maintains that the constitutionality of Lula’s ban remains the key condition to be reviewed under the STF mandate. Fux’s ruling essentially clarifies and narrows down the legal channels available to both the regulated betting industry and its critics. Stakeholders on either side can no longer go through the lower courts to secure their goals, but must rather wait for either the STF”s final decision on whether Lula’s ban is unconstitutional, or wait for the Congress to either reject or amend it. The debate so far Overseen by Fux, the Supreme Court’s abovementioned public hearings began on 3 November, with representatives of Brazilian football, media and industry trade bodies presenting arguments against the ban. The court has also heard evidence on problem gambling, addiction and risks to household welfare presented by the Health Minister Alexandre Padilha The PT government’s defence is led by Attorney General Jorge Messias, who described online gambling regulation as a “failed experiment “that had put public health and household finances at risk a crisis that no government can afford. In Congress, lawmakers have submitted 99 amendments to Provisional Measure 1,394/2026. The proposals will undergo committee scrutiny before votes in the Chamber of Deputies and Senate, which can approve, amend or reject the measure. The next deadline is 23 November, when its initial 60-day period expires. If voting remains incomplete, the measure will automatically receive a further 60-day extension. Article coauthored with Ted Orme-Claye