ANJL takes the ban to court and demands compensation
The bill that the sector intends to present to the Brazilian State is not limited to what it paid to enter. The National Association of Games and Lotteries (ANJL) is already preparing the legal presentation to reverse the provisional measure, and its claim for compensation covers much more than the R$30 million that each company disbursed for its license.
Its president, Plínio Lemos Jorge, explained it in contractual terms. The grant was a consideration paid in exchange for the right to operate fixed-odds sports betting for five years, so the request also includes compensation for material damages, for everything the sector invested in the country, and for moral damages.
The underlying interpretation of the entity is that Brazil has just regressed to the position it occupied in 2018. Less than two years after the greatest regulatory advance the market experienced, it argues, the country liquidated legal sportsbooks and left more than 30 million bettors at the mercy of thousands of unlicensed sites.
ANJL was particularly harsh regarding the reason for the decision. It spoke of a movement without international precedents in the industry, oriented solely towards an alleged electoral gain in the presidential race, and maintained that it annihilates constitutional principles: free initiative and also the dignity of the human person, the latter due to the ease with which players will now migrate to the illegal circuit.
The second pillar of the argument is legal certainty. For the association, the country is sending a message of contempt for a series of investments already made and for the companies' compliance with all the counterparts that the law had established for them. The conclusion an international investor will draw, it warns, can only be that of a completely insecure environment.
It also focused on what is being dismantled. Ending an entire industry overnight implies erasing contracts for thousands of Brazilian professionals, installed offices, and a number of events that supported an extensive chain of workers. And it eliminates tax revenue that, according to the entity itself, reached nearly R$10 billion in the first half of 2026 alone, resources that were allocated to health, social security, sports, and public safety, among other destinations.
While preparing the legal action, the association is gathering data to assess the impact. Not only on sportsbooks and their employees, but on the entire ecosystem of companies that revolve around the activity.
ANJL was founded in March 2023 and brings together a large part of the licensees in the regulated market, including Aposta Ganha Loterias, Reals Brasil, Esportes Gaming Brasil, SPRBT Interactive Brasil, Lucky Gaming, Versus Brasil, BETBR Loterias, and Upbet Brasil, as well as providers and technology companies such as Pocket Games, TaDa Gaming, and Legitimuz Tecnologia. It is one of the nine entities that signed the joint manifesto against the ban this week. A clarification on the figures: data from the Receita Federal released this week place the sector's revenue at R$9.910 billion for the period from January to August, a longer stretch than the semester the association refers to.
Tags: National Association of Gaming and Lotteries, Plínio Lemos Jorge, legal challenge against the ban, legal certainty