Betting Ban Court Fight Reverses: Sao Paulo Judge Briefly Reopens Stake, Appeals Court Shuts It Again
The court fight over Brazil's betting ban took a sharp turn this week. A weekly industry review of October 5–9 reported that on October 8 a federal court in Sao Paulo allowed licensed operator Stake Brazil to keep operating until October 25, the date the provisional measure extinguishes licences — but the regional federal court overturned that injunction on Friday, shutting Stake again. The Attorney General's Office has continued to uphold the ban, citing evidence gathered since the regulated market was created in 2025.
The ban was issued by the Lula government on September 25 as Provisional Measure 1,394, prohibiting fixed-odds betting and online casino; licensed sites went offline on Tuesday, October 6. Industry groups ANJL and the Brazilian Institute for Responsible Gaming have asked Supreme Court Justice Luiz Fux to suspend the measure until a public hearing, or to allow a transition starting December 31. Fux had not ruled by week's end, with reports suggesting he may wait until after the October 25 runoff to avoid the politically charged pre-vote period.
The fight has also reached the football pitch. Advertising boards at matches on October 7 and 8 carried the slogan that prohibiting is not protecting, and Flamengo and Fluminense stripped betting-sponsor logos for protest shirts at their derby. Flamengo's deal with Betano, worth 268.5 million reais a season, is the largest sponsorship contract in Brazilian football history; material filed with the Supreme Court put projected football-wide losses at 2.5 billion reais.
Money and jobs have made the dispute intensely political: licensed operators paid 9.95 billion reais in federal taxes in 2025, and industry associations say more than 3,500 jobs have already gone. Congress has set up a joint committee on the measure, with an amendment deadline extended to October 13; the measure lapses unless Congress approves it within 120 days.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：圣保罗州法院大楼（正义宫）侧面。摄影：Wilfredor，CC BY-SA 4.0，来源：Wikimedia Commons
