Fux Takes the Cases Against Brazil's Betting Ban and Gives the Government 72 Hours to Answer

The Supreme Court's betting rapporteur now holds every action against Provisional Measure 1.394, and has asked the Attorney General's Office to respond before he decides anything. Its deadline lands as licensed sites go dark, while Congress has pushed its own amendments past the election.

• Justice Luiz Fux of the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) was assigned on 2 October the three direct actions against Brazil's betting ban, ADIs 8024, 8027 and 8028, because he already reports on the cases against the 2023 betting law
• The same day, Fux ordered the Attorney General's Office (AGU) to respond within 72 hours in ADI 7721, the commerce confederation's case into which the operators have brought the measure, two days after we reported that no rapporteur had been named
• Congress has extended the deadline for amendments to the measure from 1 October to 13 October, after the first round of the election, and 42 amendments had been filed by Friday, some already withdrawn
• The Ministry of Justice is preparing an ordinance to check that state lotteries in nine states comply with the ban, and the Federal Police has proposed dedicated divisions against illegal betting and match-fixing
• Three Caixa Econômica Federal executives visited Uruguay's state betting company in the week the ban was signed, which Caixa calls a routine institutional visit

Every Case Against the Ban Now Sits With One Justice

The STF dockets show that ADI 8024, filed by the Associação Nacional pela Segurança Jurídica dos Jogos e Apostas (Anseja), ADI 8027, filed by the National Association of Games and Lotteries (ANJL), and ADI 8028, filed by the National Association of Mayors and Deputy Mayors (ANPV), were "distribuído por prevenção" to Fux on Friday 2 October and sent to his chambers the same day. Prevention is the rule under which a case goes to the justice already handling a related one. ADI 8024 was tied to ADI 7721, with ADIs 7723 and 7749 listed as related, and the other two were tied to ADI 8024. Fux has reported on those older cases against Law 14.790 of 2023 since 2024, held a public hearing in November that year and granted an injunction on advertising and on the use of social benefit money for betting, according to BNLData.

Also on Friday, Fux signed a one-line order in ADI 7721, the action brought by the National Confederation of Commerce in Goods, Services and Tourism (CNC): "Intime-se o Advogado-Geral da União para manifestação no prazo de 72 horas" (Summon the Attorney General of the Union to respond within 72 hours). The court certified the same day that a summons had been drawn up. The AGU had itself asked for 72 hours on 28 September, saying, according to CNN Brasil, that its request was "estritamente processual" (strictly procedural) and did not anticipate its position on the merits. The order decides nothing else, and none of the three new dockets shows a decision.

The petitions keep arriving. The ADI 8027 docket shows two more amicus curiae requests on Friday, after four on 29 September and seven on 1 October, and the Democratic Labour Party (PDT) has asked to join ADI 8024 to defend the ban, according to BNLData. Under the government's timetable, players can withdraw balances until 23:59 on 5 October, sites go offline on 6 October, operators send balances to the banks on 7 and 8 October and refunds start on 9 October, according to the Ministry of Justice as reported by iGaming Brazil. If the AGU's 72 hours run from Friday, its answer is due around the last day of withdrawals.

Congress Moves Its Amendment Deadline Past the Election

The Congress record for MP 1.394 now shows amendments open until 13 October, rather than 1 October under the original calendar. The deadline for a vote is unchanged at 23 November, and the measure begins to lock each chamber's agenda on 9 November. According to BNLData, the presiding board cited the Senate's rules, applied to joint procedure, and "the principle of full and equal participation of parliamentarians".

By Friday the record listed 42 amendments. They run from narrowing the ban to reversing it. Amendment 28, from deputy Julio Arcoverde (PP-PI), would prohibit fixed-odds betting only by those "que não detenha autorização válida" (who do not hold a valid authorisation), which is to say it would restore licensing. Senator Dr. Hiran (PP-RR) proposes ending the "tigrinho" and other games of chance while allowing betting on real sporting events. Others are moving. Pedro Aihara (PP-MG) asked on 1 October to withdraw his slots-only amendment and refiled it under a new number, and on 2 October Senator Jorge Kajuru (PSB-GO) asked to withdraw all three of his, including one that would have refunded licence fees in proportion to the remaining term. Marcos Braz's amendments to exempt sports betting and keep passive club sponsorship for 24 months remain on file, according to O Globo.

The Government Builds the Enforcement Side

The Ministry of Justice is preparing an ordinance to supervise whether state lotteries in nine states comply with the measure, iGaming Brazil reported, naming Rio de Janeiro, Paraná, Paraíba, Minas Gerais, Maranhão and São Paulo among them; the text is not yet ready. The measure extinguishes the states' fixed-odds licences on the federal timetable. "Agora, todas as bets passam a ser ilegais" (now all the bets are illegal), National Public Security Secretary Chico Lucas said.

The Federal Police has asked to create a Division for the Repression of Illegal Betting and a Division for the Repression of Sporting Result Manipulation, inside a new general coordination for money laundering and asset recovery, according to an internal document obtained by Folha de S.Paulo and reported by iGaming Brazil. Director-General Andrei Rodrigues sent it to the Ministry of Justice on 25 September, the day the measure was signed, and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has authorised the change, according to government members. The plan sets up 17 new units at an estimated monthly cost of R$44,900 (approximately $8,700) and now sits with the Ministry of Management.

Lula, interviewed on 1 October, said "não tem nenhuma prova de que isso me deu voto até agora" (there is no proof so far that this has won me votes), as polls show the ban is popular. Meanwhile Caixa authorised three executives, Gabriel Antunes Hess, Tiago Cordeiro de Oliveira and Renato Silva Siqueira, president of Caixa Loterias, to visit the Uruguayan government's fixed-odds betting company from 24 to 26 September, according to Poder360, citing an authorisation published in the official gazette on 29 September. Caixa said it "realiza com frequência visitas institucionais" (frequently makes institutional visits) to follow the sector. Lula had told Uruguay's president days earlier that he wanted to learn from Uruguay's model.

The 72 Hours End Where the Shutdown Begins

Assigning the cases to Fux removes one uncertainty and confirms another. The operators asked for him because he knows the 2023 law better than any colleague, but his first order since the new cases arrived was to hear the government, as the AGU requested, rather than rule on the requests to suspend the measure. That is ordinary procedure in a constitutional challenge to a presidential act, and it does not signal how he will decide. It does fix the calendar. A decision before the AGU answers would be unusual, and the answer falls due as withdrawals close. An injunction after that would have to restart sites that are already sending players' money back through the banks. Fux's own record cuts both ways: he has restricted betting advertising, which suggests sympathy with the harm case, and he has spent two years on the 2023 law without suspending it as a whole.

Congress Has Chosen to Let the Voters Go First

Moving the amendment deadline to 13 October means the shape of any conversion law will be argued after the first round on 4 October, and possibly with the run-off on 25 October in view, the same day the licences are extinguished. The amendments show how wide the field is, from Arcoverde's restoration of licensing to a sports-only carve-out, and the withdrawals show that positions are still forming. None of that helps an operator whose licence lapses before any committee votes. Congress can still write a new licensing framework, but on the current calendar it will be legislating for a market that has already closed.

Brazil Is Planning for the Market After the Ban

The police divisions, the supervision of state lotteries and the Caixa visit point in one direction. A ban that relies on blocking sites and payments needs investigators who specialise in betting, and dedicated divisions are an admission that illegal supply will persist. A state channel modelled on Uruguay, where a single state-supervised platform operates beside an illegal market its lottery director has put at about $700 million a year, would be one way to offer a legal alternative without restoring private licences. Caixa says the trip was routine, and nothing in the measure proposes such a channel. But the government is building enforcement for a long ban, not a short one.

The court now has one justice and one deadline, and Congress has given itself until after the vote. On 6 October the licensed market goes dark either way.