Brazil Again Has No Licensed Sportsbook as TRF3 Halts CDA Gaming's Return

Casa de Apostas traded for barely two days as Brazil's only licensed sportsbook before the federal appeal court's president switched it off on 6 November. Hours later the Prosecutor-General asked the Supreme Federal Tribunal to freeze every lower court challenge to the ban.

• TRF3 president Johonsom Di Salvo suspended CDA Gaming's appeal court order on 6 November, so no licensed operator is legally taking bets in Brazil
• He extended to CDA the October suspension that had already shut Stake down, citing public order and the cases pending before the Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF)
• Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet asked Justice Luiz Fux the same evening to suspend, nationwide, every case challenging Provisional Measure 1.394 until the STF rules
• The STF has folded the betting cases into a joint judgment with municipal lotteries and the gaming ban, with no date, after the 3 November hearing
• Congress has not installed the committee on the measure, whose first 60 days end on 23 November

A Court President Ends the Last Exception to Brazil's Ban

Judge Luis Antonio Johonsom Di Salvo, president of the Federal Regional Court of the 3rd Region (TRF3), granted the federal government's request on Friday 6 November, the Attorney General's Office (AGU) announced. He extended to CDA Gaming the effects of the October suspension of Stake's injunction, so the order Judge Adriana Pileggi gave CDA is suspended until final judgment in its case or a further decision of the presidency.

BNLData, an industry title that read the decision, says it was signed at 18:37 in the Stake suspension case, 5032238-54.2026.4.03.0000. Casa de Apostas, one of CDA's three brands, had been taking bets since 5 November, the only licensed sportsbook trading since licences fell on 25 October; Betsul and Jogo Online showed only a notice, the title reported.

Di Salvo did not review the merits. The AGU quotes him as finding a "risco concreto de grave lesão à ordem pública" (a concrete risk of serious harm to public order) from "instabilidade normativa" (regulatory instability), and holding that isolated rulings should not alter the measure while the STF examines it in ADIs 8024, 8027 and 8028. BNLData says CDA has five days to file an internal appeal, which does not suspend the decision.

The Prosecutor-General Wants Every Case Frozen

Gonet filed on the night of 6 November, asking Fux to suspend nationwide the proceedings that challenge Provisional Measure 1.394 until a final STF ruling, Jornal de Brasília and BNLData reported. He cited legal uncertainty and the measure's "aplicação assimétrica" (asymmetric application), with CDA's order as his example. Fux had not ruled when those reports were published.

BNLData counts 19 operator and association suits in the federal courts, 14 in the TRF3 and five in the TRF1. None now has an injunction in force.

On 4 November the STF plenary heard argument in ADPF 1212, Nunes Marques' case on municipal lotteries, and STF President Edson Fachin suspended it, to be resumed "em data oportuna" (at an opportune date), the court said. BNLData reports that, on Justice Flávio Dino's suggestion, Fachin agreed to a joint judgment with Fux's cases on the 2023 betting law and the measure, and with RE 966177 on the gaming ban. Fux said he would need time to write his vote.

Congress Has Not Started, and a Tax Measure Landed Anyway

The congressional record, last updated on 6 November, lists the joint committee as awaiting installation, with 99 amendments filed. The measure's deliberation period ends on 23 November, the urgency regime that blocks a chamber's agenda starts on 9 November, and the Constitution allows one 60-day extension. Counting the recess pause, BNLData calculates that it lapses on 4 March 2027 if not voted.

A separate measure, Provisional Measure 1.399, published on 4 November, sets 2027 Selective Tax rates. Its Article 7 fixes 0.5% for "concursos de prognósticos" as defined in Complementary Law 214/2025, which BNLData says includes fixed-quota betting, with effect from 2 February 2027.

Enforcement continues meanwhile. On 5 November the Federal District Civil Police's Operation Azzardo targeted an unlicensed betting network with a court-authorised freeze of up to R$3.483 billion, approximately $633 million, a ceiling rather than a sum seized, BNLData reported.

Suspension Requests Now Beat Every Operator Win

Twice the court's president has held that one operator trading while the rest are shut is itself the harm. That logic defeats any single company's injunction, however strong its merits. Only a collective STF ruling or Congress can reopen the market.

Gonet Asks to Cure an Asymmetry That No Longer Exists

With CDA suspended, no operator holds an injunction in force, so the unequal treatment Gonet describes has already been removed by the TRF3. What his request would add is a bar on new rulings while the STF assembles a joint judgment that, by Fux's own account, needs time. Granted, it would leave operators with no forum that is actually deciding.

The Calendar Belongs to Congress

The joint judgment brings in the 1941 contraventions law and municipal lotteries, which makes a quick ruling less likely. That leaves the measure's own clock, on which nothing has started. The government has meanwhile set a 2027 selective tax rate for a category that, on BNLData's reading, includes the betting it banned, so operators who win back the market would return to a larger bill.

Brazil's licensed sector is shut again, this time with no exception left standing. Whether it reopens now depends less on any judge than on a committee that has not yet met.