Brazil's Betting Ban Heads to the Supreme Court as Justice Fux Seeks the Government's Case
On September 25, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed Provisional Measure 1,394, banning fixed-odds betting and online casinos in Brazil and ordering licensed platforms offline by October 6. On October 2, Supreme Federal Court Justice Luiz Fux gave the Attorney General's Office 72 hours to provide information on industry requests to suspend the measure, moving the ban into judicial review. According to Deloitte's October 9 briefing on the ban, the Attorney General responded on October 5 opposing any suspension and arguing that operators have no right to a refund of licence fees or to compensation.
The ban landed abruptly: Brazil's licensed betting market only opened in January 2025 and is now being shut down in under two years. Players had until 11:59 p.m. on October 5 to withdraw balances, and Deloitte reported that about 1.33 billion reais remained in player accounts on October 5, with banks arranging returns. Industry associations, backed by 21 football clubs, have asked the Supreme Court to suspend the measure.
The economic impact was immediate. The National Association of Games and Lotteries (ANJL) said on October 7 that more than 3,500 direct jobs — about 23 percent of the sector's workforce — had been lost in under two weeks, with a further 4,167 employees placed on collective vacation and dismissals expected to reach 5,600 within 90 days. Licensed operators paid 9.95 billion reais in federal taxes in 2025.
The dispute has also become a campaign issue. Finance Minister Dario Durigan described the October 4 first-round vote as a kind of plebiscite on the ban, while Flavio Bolsonaro attacked the ban's timing but backed keeping an online-casino prohibition. Congress has until November 23 to decide the measure's fate, and the Supreme Court ruling may wait until after the October 25 runoff.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：巴西最高联邦法院大楼，巴西利亚。摄影：Josue Marinho，CC BY 3.0，取自 Wikimedia Commons
