Brazil's Supreme Court May Hear Betting and Gambling Cases Together

Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) is considering hearing together the cases on online betting, municipal lotteries and the ban on gambling. This possibility came up after a debate among the justices during the plenary session on Wednesday, November 4. Chief Justice Edson Fachin pointed to this change while the ADPF 1212 case, filed by the Solidariedade party against municipal laws and decrees, was being discussed.

Justices Flávio Dino and Luiz Fux supported examining the related cases together. Fachin had initially planned to keep the cases separate, but after the justices' interventions he said he was open to reassessing his approach. Legal experts also referred to the public hearing held at the court the day before, on November 3.

The joint hearing will cover Law 14.790/2023, which regulates fixed-odds betting, and Provisional Measure 1.394/2026, which later banned this activity. The constitutionality of the gambling ban under the 1941 Misdemeanors Law will also be examined. Dino had postponed the gambling ban case in August by requesting more time. He now said he was ready to send the case back to the plenary so it could be heard together with the betting cases. Fux, the rapporteur for the betting cases, said he supported a broader review but needed additional time to prepare his opinion. He added that new petitions seeking a ban, joined to existing challenges against the betting law, had significantly increased the arguments and submissions before the court.

The municipal lottery case matters for local governments. In an interim decision dated December 3, issued in December 2025, rapporteur Nunes Marques suspended the municipal laws and decrees and ordered existing operations to be halted. At the hearing, the AGU argued that municipalities have no authority to operate lotteries and that dividing oversight among local bodies would cause practical problems. Representatives of the São Paulo city government and organizations supporting municipal lotteries argued that local operators could comply with federal rules and provide revenue for public services.