Dino Upholds Minas Gerais's Betting Ad Ban as Lula Looks to Uruguay's Monopoly

The Supreme Court justice refused ANJL's injunction against a state decree barring betting sponsorship on public property, citing the CPI report and public health; ANJL will appeal to the full court. The same day, Lula told Uruguay's president he wants to learn from a model that is a single state platform with a US$700 million illegal market beside it, and ANJL's own count found 6,409 unlicensed domains live last week.

• Supreme Federal Court justice Flávio Dino on Monday refused the National Association of Games and Lotteries (ANJL) a preliminary injunction against Minas Gerais decree 49.279 of 20 August, which bans advertising, promotion and sponsorship by fixed-odds betting operators on state public property and at events the state promotes or supports, BNLData reports
• Dino held that no company has an "acquired right" to sponsorship paid from state funds, that the decree falls within the state's autonomy over its own assets, and that suppressing gambling protects public health, consumers and public safety, citing the 2025 parliamentary inquiry into betting; the merits are still to be decided
• ANJL called the reasoning "mistaken", said it respects the decision and will appeal to the full court; it argues gambling regulation is a federal competence and that a decree cannot impose what only a law could
• In New York on Monday, President Lula told Uruguay's Yamandú Orsi he wanted to learn from Uruguay's regulation of online betting, a market BNLData notes consists of one state-supervised platform, Supermatch, with turnover of about US$30,000 to $35,000 a day and an illegal market its lottery director puts at about US$700 million a year
• ANJL's technical note of 18 September counts 66,482 unlicensed domains blocked by the federal government, about 11,800 likely still reachable, 6,409 responding normally in the week to 18 September, and estimates a ban on online casino would lift the illegal share of betting from about 41% to 78% to 82%

A State Ban on Betting Ads Survives Its First Test at the Supreme Court

Brazil's Supreme Federal Court has declined to suspend a Minas Gerais decree that bans betting advertising and sponsorship on state property and at state-supported events, in an early test of state-level restrictions on the regulated market. Justice Flávio Dino refused the National Association of Games and Lotteries (ANJL) a preliminary injunction on Monday 21 September, according to BNLData. The full court will still decide the merits, and Dino ordered the governor of Minas Gerais and the ministers of justice, finance and sport to be notified.

Decree 49.279, signed on 20 August, prohibits the dissemination of advertising, publicity, commercial promotion and sponsorship by fixed-odds betting operators, adult content platforms and sexual services on state public property and at events promoted or supported by the Minas Gerais executive, and bars the use of state funds for such sponsorship. ANJL argued that gambling is a matter reserved to federal legislation, and that the state had exceeded its regulatory power by imposing by decree what only a law could.

Dino did not accept either point at the preliminary stage. There is no "acquired right" for companies or event organisers to receive sponsorship financed with state public funds, he wrote; it is for the public administration to decide how to use its own resources, and the decree is an exercise of the state's autonomy over its assets. He added that the state's role in suppressing gambling goes beyond protecting morals and involves constitutional values of public health, consumer protection and public safety, and referred to the final report of the parliamentary inquiry into betting concluded in 2025. ANJL said it respects the decision, considers the reasoning "mistaken", and will lodge a procedural appeal so that the full court rules.

The ruling landed in a week when the federal government is split over a provisional measure against the bets, and President Lula spent Monday morning in New York with Uruguay's president Yamandú Orsi. "I also expressed interest in learning about Uruguay's experience in regulating online betting," Lula wrote on X afterwards. BNLData's response is that the Uruguayan model does not exist as a regulated market: the only nationally authorised platform is Supermatch, state-supervised and sports-only, with daily turnover of about US$30,000 to $35,000 and up to $80,000 on big events; foreign-licensed operators may not sponsor Uruguayan clubs, and the state fines clubs when foreign broadcasts show rival sponsors; a Senate-approved reform has been stalled in the Chamber since 2022; and the director of the Dirección Nacional de Loterías y Quinielas put the illegal market at about US$700 million a year. Uruguay has 3.4 million people, roughly a tenth of the 25.5 million Brazilians who used authorised platforms in 2025.

ANJL's own monitoring, in a technical note dated 18 September and published by BNLData, is the industry's answer to the prohibition argument. The federal government has blocked 66,482 unlicensed betting domains, more than 355 for every authorised one; applying the 17.7% still-reachable rate the federal audit court measured, about 11,800 of those may still be accessible; ANJL tracks 9,986 unlicensed domains, of which 6,409 responded normally in the week of 11 to 18 September; at least 13.7 new domains a day were registered between June and August; 98.3% sit outside the .br domain and 55.8% behind content delivery networks. Payments run through 24 gateways, 93 receiving companies and 23 payment institutions, the largest gateway serving 843 unlicensed operators. Third-party estimates put the unlicensed market at 30% to 51% of online betting and R$26 billion to R$40 billion a year of revenue. In ANJL's simulations, banning online casino would lift the unlicensed share from about 41% to 78% to 82%, move R$8.2 billion to R$19.1 billion a year of stakes offshore, and cost R$3.6 billion to R$7.4 billion a year in tax on top of the R$7.2 billion to R$10.8 billion already forgone.

The Minas Decision Is About Who May Regulate, and Dino Has Answered for the States

ANJL's constitutional argument is the industry's strongest: gambling is a federal competence, and a country with 27 states each writing its own advertising rules is not the market Law 14,790 created. Dino has sidestepped it by characterising the decree as the state managing its own property and money rather than regulating gambling, which is true of a ban on sponsorship of state events and much less obviously true of a ban on advertising on state property, where the operator is the buyer and the state is merely the landlord. If the full court adopts his framing, every governor has a template for excluding betting brands from stadiums, transport and public events without touching the federal framework, and São Paulo, whose governor-candidate Haddad campaigns on ending the bets, will not need a law to start.

Lula Has Named a Model That Is a Prohibition With a State Bookmaker Attached

Uruguay's arrangement is the one Brazil's regulated operators warned about: a single state channel too small to absorb demand, a ban on foreign sponsorship that fines domestic clubs for opponents' shirts, and an illegal market the state's own lottery director sizes at hundreds of millions of dollars in a country of 3.4 million. Scaled to 25.5 million Brazilian bettors, that is ANJL's 78% to 82% scenario described as a policy rather than a warning. The president's interest may be diplomatic courtesy; it may also be a signal about where the provisional measure is heading, and the operators will read it as the second.

ANJL's Numbers Are Self-Interested and Also the Only Ones Anybody Has

A trade body simulating the effect of a ban on its members' product will find the effect large, and the 78% to 82% range rests on migration assumptions of 30% to 70% that the note states rather than derives. The counts are harder to dismiss: 66,482 blocked domains is the government's own figure, 6,409 live domains is a measurement, and 843 operators on one payment gateway is the kind of detail a regulator could act on tomorrow. The government preparing to ban online casino has not published a competing estimate of where the money goes when it does, and until it does, the industry's is the number on the table.

Brazil's federal government is deciding whether to restrict the regulated market, its Supreme Court has just let a state restrict it first, and its president is asking a neighbour with a state monopoly how it is done. The operators are counting the domains that will absorb the difference.