Brazil betting ban: Supreme Court halts lower court challenges pending ruling

Brazil's Supreme Federal Court has suspended lower court proceedings against the federal betting ban, leaving operators and bettors with two places to look for an answer: the court itself, and Congress. Justice Luiz Fux issued an interim decision on Monday 9 November pausing the constitutional challenges to Provisional Measure 1,394/2026, SBC News reported.

Fux granted an appeal from Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet, who seeks to end the individual court rulings that allowed some companies to keep taking online bets after the ban was announced.

Why Fux stopped the lower courts

SBC News reports that Fux wants legal clarity and certainty on gambling, and treats the constitutionality of President Lula da Silva's ban as the question the court has to settle. In the interim decision, the justice said conflicting rulings risked creating legal uncertainty, because some operators were allowed to resume business while others remained prohibited.

The effect is to narrow the routes open to both sides. Trade bodies fighting the ban, and the government defending it, can no longer win relief in the lower courts. They wait for the Supreme Federal Court to rule on the measure, or for Congress to reject or amend it.

The companies that had permission to stay open

Lula announced the ban in Provisional Measure 1,394/2026 on 25 September. Congress began its 120-day review, and licensed operators were given a short window to close.

Exceptions were made early for some companies. CDA Gaming was granted permission by lower court rulings to keep running Casa de Apostas, BetSul and Jogo Online. Stake was briefly allowed to continue operating until the presidential election run-offs on 25 October, before that permission was quashed, SBC News reported.

The regime set up by the Bets Law, signed by Lula in late 2024, remains the backdrop to the dispute. SBC News's account holds that its rules should stay available to licensed operators while Congress decides whether to pass, suspend or amend the measure. Industry trade bodies and their allies in commerce and politics call the president's intervention a constitutional infringement that violates "legal certainty, free competition and due process".

Congress and the 23 November deadline

The court's public hearings opened on 3 November and ran for three days under Fux. Representatives of Brazilian football, media and industry trade bodies argued against the ban. Health Minister Alexandre Padilha gave evidence on problem gambling, addiction and risks to household welfare. Attorney General Jorge Messias, leading the government's defence, described online gambling regulation as a "failed experiment" that had put public health and household finances at risk.

In Congress, lawmakers have submitted 99 amendments to the measure. The proposals go through committee scrutiny before votes in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, which can approve, amend or reject it. The initial 60-day period expires on 23 November. If voting is not complete by then, the measure receives an automatic further 60 days.

SBC News did not report a date for the Supreme Federal Court's ruling on the merits, or say when the full court will take up the case. The report also does not establish whether the permissions already granted to individual operators survive Fux's interim decision.