Brasília The Attorney General of the Republic, Paulo Gonet, asked this Friday (6) the STF (Supreme Federal Court) to suspend all actions in progress in the country that challenge the ban on betting, provided for in MP (provisional measure) signed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) at the end of September, on the eve of the 1st round of elections.
For the head of the Federal Public Ministry, the "proliferation of legal proceedings on the constitutional validity" of the MP "causes a situation of legal uncertainty".
Gonet defends that all processes that address the issue be suspended until the STF (Supreme Federal Court) definitively rules on the dispute.
The request was addressed to Minister Luiz Fux, rapporteur of several actions on betting, both those asking for fixed odds bets to be prohibited and those asking for them to be maintained.
The head of the Prosecutor's Office cited in the document the recent provisional (injunction) decision of a judge from the TRF-3 (Federal Regional Court of the 3rd Region) that allowed three betting sites linked to the company CDA Gaming to resume operating games. This Friday, the president of TRF-3, Johonsom Di Salvo, suspended the injunction that had allowed the release of the three sites.
Since the government banned betting in September, there has been a judicial and legislative dispute over the validity of the measure. In addition to questioning constitutionality in the STF, deputies have already presented one hundred amendments to Lula's MP.
The MP will expire on March 4, considering the 120 days of validity plus Congressional recess periods. As the text determined the expiration of betting site licenses on October 25, even the loss of validity does not guarantee that companies will return to activity. The matter would be decided by legislative decree from Congress.
In the text of the provisional measure, the government argues that the extinction of online betting in the country is motivated by the public interest.
According to the MP, the experience of the Brazilian regulated market, which lasted around two years considering the transition period starting on September 17, 2024, showed that the rules adopted by the Union were not capable of ensuring adequate protection for health, consumers, minors and the financial stability of families.
In a public hearing at the Supreme Court on the case on Tuesday (3), Luiz Fux spoke out against betting and defended that online betting be banned in the country.
"In these hearings, the harmful consequences of betting activity were widely discussed," said Fux, who also cited the risks of gambling disorder, a mental illness characterized by addiction to gambling and online betting.
"We listened to the whole of society and I was convinced that gambling disorder is a public health problem, an economic problem and that it should be banned from the national sports scene."
Different entities defended the measure that barred betting throughout the hearing, such as the CNC (National Confederation of Commerce in Goods, Services and Tourism). On the contrary, one of the segments that took a stand against the ban was football clubs, alleging million-dollar losses in revenue.
At the meeting, Fux cited the STF's judgment on the topic, suspended after a request for a review from Minister Flávio Dino. "There was a request for review that did not come back until today, which is why I did not have the opportunity to reiterate and add to my vote my perception that betting should be banned," he said.
In August, the court began analyzing the 1941 law that treats gambling as a misdemeanor. The discussion seeks to define whether the law can continue to be applied or whether, after the 1988 Federal Constitution, it began to contradict the principle of individual freedoms.
Opponents of the Palácio do Planalto are working together in the National Congress to overthrow the MP edited by Lula. It needs to be voted on by parliamentarians to avoid losing its validity — the deadline for voting is at the beginning of March 2027.
