ANJL and IBJR ask STF to suspend prohibition
From 54 illegal sites per day to 914. Seventeen times faster. This acceleration, measured between September 22 and 28, is the argument with which the National Association of Games and Lotteries (ANJL) and the Brazilian Institute of Responsible Gambling (IBJR) went to the Supreme Federal Court to request a halt to the betting ban.
The petition was filed on the afternoon of Monday, the 28th, addressed to Minister Luiz Fux. In the document, the entities again request an injunction to suspend MP 1.394/2026 and state that they have already filed a Direct Action of Unconstitutionality, ADI 8027, where they also demand that both Chapter V of Law 13.756/2018 and Law 14.790/2023 be declared constitutional. They ask that the case be assigned to Fux by prevention, because the subject matter coincides with three cases that the minister already has on his desk, ADIs 7.721, 7.723, and 7.749.
The claim is structured in stages. The first thing they ask for is to suspend the entire measure until Congress finishes its analysis or until the court resolves the merits of the ADI. If that does not succeed, that the suspension covers at least companies whose authorization from the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting (SPA) is still valid. And if not, that the closing deadlines be extended by at least six months, with orderly exit plans and the guarantee that each user can withdraw their balance. In any of the three scenarios, they ask that neither the Ministry of Finance, nor the SPA, nor Anatel, nor the Central Bank, nor any other body execute anything while the case is open.
The core of the argument is temporal rather than economic. The petition argues that the market was extinguished abruptly, in a matter of hours, without companies having any time to close their obligations, and that if the measure is maintained, the sector will disappear entirely even before Congress has a chance to review it.
In the ADI, ANJL argues that the measure is unconstitutional for violating legal certainty and freedom to undertake business. Its thesis is that this was not an adjustment or a restriction, but the complete elimination of a market that originated in Congress because the Executive itself requested it, and whose paid authorizations have been granted since January 2025. Plínio Lemos Jorge, head of the entity, stated that the action seeks to stop an act that harms not only companies in the sector but also millions of people who bet, and warned that what is coming is not an integrated market but scorched earth, with illegal sites dominating without competition.
The survey numbers accompanying the presentation describe this migration. In those seven days, 6,401 new clandestine domains appeared. The peak was on Sunday, the 27th, with 3,024 addresses in a single day, and in the seventy-two hours following the announcement, about 88 percent of everything detected that week was concentrated. Slightly more than half of these addresses end in .com, and active dissemination channels in messaging and social media also doubled.
The associations are not the only ones to have taken a stand. The Brazilian Institute of Regulatory Law (IBDRE), through its Sports Betting Commission, described the measure as a profound rupture of the regulatory framework and objected to authorizations being revoked without reimbursement or compensation. Its note raises the uncomfortable question: where does demand go once authorized platforms close? And it answers that migrating to clandestine operators removes the user from a place where there is identification, self-exclusion, traceability, and protection for vulnerable groups. For the institute, there were alternatives before the abrupt extinction, such as tightening advertising or strengthening prevention, and it distrusts both the reasons for urgency invoked by the measure and the timing chosen for its signing, days before an election.
There is also a collateral effect that has already materialized. The National Council for Advertising Self-Regulation (CONAR) halted its self-regulation work on the sector to comply with the provisions of the norm. The council had written its own rules in Annex X of its code and warned that such norms are only effective if the legal framework remains stable, so an abrupt change discontinues the protection mechanisms built and can impact consumer exposure.
The MP came into effect with its publication on September 25, and authorized platforms must shut down by October 6. Congress has until November to address it, with the possibility of an extension, but has not yet given formal signs of having started. Meanwhile, the judicial path remains open, and the decision on the injunction may come before any parliamentary movement.
Tags: ADI 8027, Federal Supreme Court, Provisional Measure 1.394/2026, Illegal betting market