Justice revokes Stake's operating permit in Brazil
Stake lasted five days with judicial permission to continue operating in Brazil. Johonsom Di Salvo, the federal judge presiding over the Federal Regional Court of the 3rd Region, overturned the injunction that allowed it to temporarily sustain its operations and reinstated Provisional Measure No. 1,394/2026, which mandates the closure of all fixed-odds betting platforms in the country.
The decision came after a request from the federal government and revoked what had been granted on Thursday, August 8, by Cristiane Farias Rodrigues dos Santos, federal judge of the 9th Federal Civil Court of São Paulo. According to BNL DATA, the court considered that upholding the operator's permit could seriously damage administrative public order and encourage other companies in the sector to litigate for the same. The suspension is effective until the resolution in the writ of mandamus filed by Stake becomes final, or until the TRF3 Presidency itself decides otherwise.
What the injunction had granted was little and for a short time. The operator had requested to halt the effects of the provisional measure to operate until December 31, 2029, when the permit granted by Ordinance SPA/MF No. 263/2025 expires, but the magistrate rejected that claim and only partially granted an alternative request, with authorization provisionally in effect until October 25, the same day the MP itself extinguishes all permits. During that window, no authority could declare the authorization extinguished, nor block or redirect the domain stake.bet.br, nor sanction the company for the sole act of continuing to operate within what the ruling allowed.
The injunction also came with a list of obligations. It imposed 12 conditions. Among them, not launching new advertising campaigns, not offering bonuses, ensuring that bettors could withdraw their balance, and maintaining responsible gambling tools. With the suspension ordered by the TRF3, all these judicial protections fell.
The State's argument was one of equality among competitors. In its appeal, it argued that the ruling favorable to Stake created an exception within a public policy that applies nationwide, produced regulatory inequality, and gave a single company an undue advantage over the rest of the platforms affected by the prohibition, with the risk of multiplication if other companies sought the same. Stake opposed in writing, but its arguments found no resonance.
The judge accepted that reasoning and added two more. For Di Salvo, the provisional measure was designed to apply uniformly to everyone participating in the market, and upholding an individual permit would, in his words, be susceptible to compromising the coherence and effectiveness of administrative action. He also considered consumer and bettor protection, given how a digital betting service operates, and weighed the fact that the constitutional validity of the norm is already being discussed in the Supreme Federal Court through Direct Actions of Unconstitutionality 8024, 8027, and 8028, reported by Minister Luiz Fux, making it better to avoid individual rulings while the Supreme Court examines the merits of the matter.
The case remains open in several instances. Stake is once again subject to the provisional measure, including the redirection of stake.bet.br requested by the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, and the ruling was urgently communicated to the São Paulo court, where the writ of mandamus continues its course and where the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting, the National Telecommunications Agency, and the Central Bank must submit reports before the opinion of the Federal Public Ministry. The decision by the TRF3 Presidency can still be challenged by way of appeal before the collegiate body, and the suspension procedure for injunctions does not definitively resolve either the legality or the constitutionality of the veto, because it is exceptional and only considers what effects the ruling has on public order.
The 12 conditions imposed by the injunction are the most interesting part of the case, as they describe how a judge imagines a betting operator should look during an orderly shutdown: no advertising, no bonuses, guaranteed withdrawals, and intact responsible gambling tools. This is exactly a transition regime, and it is exactly what the provisional measure did not foresee and what several amendments in Congress are requesting. On a strategic level, Stake's defeat closes the individual path, because with three ADIs pending in Fux's office, the Judiciary is signaling that the prohibition is resolved for everyone or not resolved at all. A difficult asymmetry for the sector to digest remains: the company sought to operate until 2029 under a license it paid for five years, and what was actually being discussed were nine days.
Tags: Stake, TRF3, MP 1.394, Brazil betting ban