Luiz Fux Suspends Lower-Court Challenges to Brazil’s Betting Ban

Supreme Federal Court Justice Luiz Fux has suspended all ongoing lower-court proceedings challenging the constitutionality of Brazil’s fixed-odds betting ban, the court announced on 9 novembre 2026. The nationwide stay will last until the Supreme Court resolves the dispute definitively.

Fux signed the order in Brasília on 8 novembre 2026. He acted individually on an interim basis, subject to confirmation by the court’s full bench, and did not decide whether the prohibition is constitutional. The underlying question remains for judgment in four direct constitutional actions before the Supreme Court.

Why Prosecutors Sought a Nationwide Stay

The Prosecutor-General of the Republic requested the nationwide suspension on 6 novembre 2026, within the National Association of Games and Lotteries’ Supreme Court challenge, which the association filed on 28 settembre 2026. The Prosecutor-General said lower courts had granted provisional relief in individual cases even though the measure’s constitutionality was already before the Supreme Court.

The request cited an 8 ottobre 2026 São Paulo federal ruling that allowed Stake Brazil to operate through 25 ottobre 2026, and a 3 novembre 2026 single-judge appellate order suspending the measure for CDA Gaming and permitting activity on Casa de Apostas, Betsul and Jogo Online. Those cases supported the argument that proliferating proceedings created legal uncertainty and risked uneven application of the same national measure.

Fux’s Reasoning for Interim Relief

Fux found that multiple courts deciding the same constitutional question could produce conflicting judgments and legal uncertainty. The order also addressed the risk of courts permitting fixed-odds betting, an activity Fux characterized as harmful and carrying elevated social risk.

Both urgency and legal plausibility, the requirements for provisional relief, were present in his assessment. The legal basis combined the court’s authority to pause cases involving a challenged norm until final judgment, similar emergency powers in other direct constitutional-review cases, its internal rules and earlier precedents supporting nationwide stays to protect legal certainty.

The Ban and the Remaining Constitutional Questions

Issued on 25 settembre 2026, the provisional measure prohibits the exploitation, offering, intermediation and advertising of fixed-odds betting. Its wind-down provisions gave operators ten days after publication to make betting websites and apps unavailable and scheduled federal, state and district authorizations for extinction on 25 ottobre 2026, without reimbursement of the grant or compensation for operators.

The National Association for Legal Security in Games and Betting (Anseja) alleged that the measure lacked the constitutional urgency required for a provisional measure, covered matters that could not be regulated that way, omitted budgetary and financial impact estimates, and violated legal certainty, free enterprise and Brazil’s federative pact. The association sought suspension of the entire measure and restoration of the previous legislation. Its alternative requests included a transition of at least 180 days and court decisions before site blocking or loss of funds.

The National Association of Games and Lotteries’ action also seeks suspension of the measure and recognition that the earlier fixed-odds betting legislation remains constitutional. The requested suspension would preserve that regulatory regime, including authorizations already granted, until Congress considers the measure or the Supreme Court issues a final judgment.

Existing individual cases cannot move toward separate constitutional outcomes while the stay is in force, centralizing the dispute in the Supreme Court. The eventual merits judgment will determine whether the national prohibition survives and whether the earlier fixed-odds regulatory framework remains valid.