Fux freezes betting-ban challenges as Brazil’s legal clash moves to the Supreme Court

Fux freezes betting-ban challenges as Brazil’s legal clash moves to the Supreme Court
Justice Luiz Fux of Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court has ordered lower courts across the country to stop hearing challenges to the Lula government’s provisional measure barring betting companies from operating. The order, requested by Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet, remains in force while the full court considers the measure’s constitutionality.

The central argument for the freeze is consistency. Gonet said the growing number of individual cases risked an “asymmetrical application of the rule,” in which some companies could operate under injunctions while competitors remained shut out. Fux similarly warned of “multiple decisions in divergent directions,” adding that the potential release of an activity regarded as harmful carried a high social risk.

The order does not, however, settle whether the prohibition itself is constitutional. Nor does it formally validate the provisional measure or automatically cancel injunctions already issued; it shifts the decisive legal battle to the Supreme Court’s review of the pending constitutional actions.

The companies’ position is reflected in earlier litigation in the Federal Regional Court of the 3rd Region. Judge Adriana Pileggi temporarily allowed Casa de Apostas, Betsul and Jogo Online to resume operations, reasoning that cancelling licences bought for 30 million reais without reimbursement amounted to a “true confiscation.” That injunction was later suspended by the court’s president, who cited public interest and the need for a uniform national consumer-protection policy.

The dispute also reaches beyond the operators. Betting firms have become major sponsors in Brazilian football, and clubs and sporting bodies have raised concerns about lost sponsorship and naming-rights income. The government, by contrast, has defended the restrictions as a measure to protect public health and household finances.

For now, neither side has won the constitutional argument. Fux’s intervention instead prevents lower-court rulings from determining which firms may operate before the Supreme Court issues a nationwide answer.

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