Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court (STF) will decide in the second half of 2026 whether the laws that legalised online betting survive constitutional review, with rapporteur Justice Luiz Fux aiming to put the case before the full court in September.
The challenge covers Law 14,790/2023, which created the fixed-odds licensing regime now administered by the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting (SPA), and Law 13,756/2018, which first legalised the activity. A ruling against either statute would reopen the legal basis of a market that launched on 1 January 2025 and currently holds 85 authorised operators.
What the Prosecutor General argues
Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet Branco filed a direct action of unconstitutionality (ADI) against both laws on 11 November 2024. The filing argues the legislation does not meet the “minimum requirements for preserving constitutional assets” and leaves consumers and the wider economy exposed.
“[The current legislation is] insufficient to protect the fundamental rights of consumers of the products and the national economy itself, given the predatory nature of the virtual betting market,” the PGR filing states.
Gonet’s action was not the first. ADI 7721, also assigned to Fux, was filed by the National Confederation of Trade in Goods, Services and Tourism (CNC), Brazil’s third largest trade union body. The STF held a two-day public hearing on the social impact of betting on 11 and 12 November 2024, at which Fux said the constitutional question needed resolving quickly.
“The problems that are brought up here, relating to deprived communities, the minor problems and the other serious problems that are highlighted, lead us to the idea that this resolution must be urgent,” Fux said at the hearing.
Eight actions, one docket
Fux is rapporteur for the main betting ADIs, including 7721, 7723 and 7749. Brazilian outlet O Tempo counted eight separate actions before the Court that bear on the sector, covering the licensing framework, Ministry of Finance regulations and advertising restrictions.
STF President Justice Edson Fachin said on 15 July that the Court would move to final judgment on the betting cases in the second half of the year. The statement followed a meeting with Deputy Finance Minister Dario Durigan, which the Court described as “relevant republican dialogue” and which covered illegal platforms, supervision of the licensed market and the pending litigation. Precautionary orders already issued by the Court, including restrictions protecting social-programme beneficiaries, remain in force until the merits are settled.
A separate criminal question first
Before the ADIs reach the plenary, the Court was scheduled to hear Extraordinary Appeal (RE) 966177 on 5 August. Fux is rapporteur there as well. That case asks whether Article 50 of the 1941 Penal Misdemeanours Law, which punishes running games of chance in a public place with three months to a year of simple imprisonment, was received by the 1988 Constitution.
The appeal originated in Rio Grande do Sul, where the state Public Ministry contested a lower appeals panel finding that the 1941 provision no longer applies. Filed in April 2016, the case is separate from the online betting ADIs but shares the same question of how far the Constitution permits the state to prohibit gambling. If the justices find the provision was not received, running games of chance stops being a criminal misdemeanour, though any commercial framework would still require action from Congress and the executive.
The data the Court will weigh
Durigan gave the Court enforcement and social figures from the Finance Ministry. Authorities have blocked around 56,000 illegal betting sites, and the national self-exclusion register holds close to one million entries. Federal Police operations have cut off access for recipients of social programmes and for participants in the Novo Desenrola Brasil debt renegotiation scheme.
The justices are also examining evidence on household over-indebtedness, gambling disorder and links between unlicensed operators and organised crime. Political pressure has run in the same direction: President Lula called for a ban on online betting platforms in April, and his Workers’ Party subsequently tabled a bill to prohibit fixed-odds betting outright.
Industry position on the risk
Licensed operators and their trade bodies have argued that striking down the laws would move volume offshore rather than reduce it. The National Association of Games and Lotteries (ANJL) made that case at the 2024 hearing, warning at the time that an adverse ruling would disrupt around BRL 4 billion in first-year regulated revenue and up to 60,000 jobs.
“If the Direct Action of Unconstitutionality (ADI) is accepted, it ends, contrary to its own objective, doing what it seeks to prohibit or avoid, which is the incentive to pathological gambling, illegal gambling,” said ANJL legal director Pietro Cardia Lorenzoni.
The regulated market has since produced numbers of its own. Brazil recorded roughly $7bn in GGR across its first regulated year, making it the largest newly licensed jurisdiction in Latin America.
What happens next
Restrictions are tightening at municipal level while the Court deliberates. Rio de Janeiro published Decree 58.274/2026 on 13 July, banning fixed-odds betting advertising across municipally controlled public spaces, street furniture, events and concession agreements, with a 10-day compliance window before penalties applied. Federal advertising rules requiring responsible gambling warnings and barring depictions of betting as income or investment took effect on 17 July.
Fux’s September target would put a plenary decision in front of operators before the end of the year. The range of outcomes is wide: the Court can uphold the framework, strike parts of it, or set conditions that the SPA and Congress must then implement. Licence holders that have spent 20 months building compliance operations around Law 14,790 will be planning against all three.
Source: Supremo Tribunal Federal
