Jorge Messias, Brazil’s Attorney General, has urged the Supreme Court (STF) to hold a meeting with the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (PGR) regarding the betting ban being rolled out in the nation.
The Attorney General has called for the two institutions to meet before a decision is taken on whether to respect the licensed sector’s calls to overturn President Lula’s provisional measure to ban gambling.
SBC Noticias Brasil reported that Messias has directly appealed to Luiz Fux, Justice of the Supreme Court, asking for a broader public debate involving the PGR, researchers, consumer protection organisations, and economically affected stakeholders, including gambling operators.
In its request, the Attorney General Office (AGU) remained adamant that the licensed sector’s proposals to temporarily lift the ban are unsubstantiated.
It argued that the urgency of the measure has been justified by increasing pressures on the family budget, debt, and public health, adding that the gambling legislation adopted on 1 January 2024 already included a provision outlining the possible termination of all regulated activity if it is in the public interest.
Brazil’s licensed sector mounting a defence
The Supreme Court’s Luiz Fux is also the recipient of a request made by Brazil’s two largest gambling trade bodies – the National Association of Games and Lotteries (ANJL) and the Brazilian Institute of Responsible Gambling (IBJR) – to suspend Lula’s decree temporarily until the country’s National Congress has produced a statement on it.
As a reminder, the Congress will return to its duties following the final of the ongoing Presidential elections, with the public choosing between Lula and main rival Flávio Bolsonaro on 25 October.
Both the ANJL and the IBJR have also proposed for the ban to be briefly lifted at least for operators already holding a licence by the Secretariat of Awards and Bets (SPA), with a transition period of at least six months to discontinue all operations.
Under Lula’s provision, which was enforced on 26 September, operators had only until 6 October to pull the shutters all the way down.
The trade bodies additionally argued the sentiment that the licensed market had been continuously expanding, using data from the Betting Management System (Sigap) to showcase a market value of around R$101bn in H1 2025, which then fell to R$88bn YoY in 2026.
The question of breaching the inviolable legal certainty granted by the licensed framework was also raised, with the ANJL and the IBJR pointing out that licensed providers had been given a set amount of years to operate in Brazil, in addition to paying R$30m for their licences.
The AGU and the PGR have refused to accept all of the above as valid arguments, presenting the Supreme Court with a unified front in defence of Lula’s decree as an emergency public health intervention.