Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court (STF) has taken evidence on the provisional measure that would shut down the country’s regulated betting market, holding a public hearing on Tuesday 3 November 2026 to examine the impacts of Medida Provisória 1.394/2026. The measure prohibits the exploitation of fixed-odds betting — known in Brazil simply as bets — and provides for the termination of the authorisations already granted to companies in the sector.
The hearing, convened by Justice Luiz Fux, began at 10am in the session room of the STF’s Second Panel (Segunda Turma) and was transmitted live by Rádio e TV Justiça and on the court’s YouTube channel. Fux is the rapporteur of Direct Action of Unconstitutionality (ADI) 8027, the case within which the hearing was called.
Who took part
Participants included representatives of Executive Branch bodies, football clubs, sports organisations, commerce, and associations and institutes linked to the betting sector. Each entity was allotted ten minutes to present its considerations on the provisional measure.
The constitutional challenge
ADI 8027 was filed by the Associação Nacional de Jogos e Loterias (ANJL), which asks the Supreme Court to declare MP 1.394/2026 unconstitutional and to uphold the validity of the Betting Law. The same measure is also challenged in ADIs 8024, 8028 and 8035.
The hearing followed a request from the Attorney General’s Office (AGU), which, after MP 1.394/2026 was issued, asked the rapporteur to assess the need for a new public hearing on the subject.
It was the second such hearing the court has held on Brazilian betting regulation. In November 2024, the STF heard more than 50 experts and representatives of public bodies and civil society on the Betting Law (Lei 14.790/2023), challenged in ADIs 7721, 7723 and 7749 — cases also reported by Justice Fux. The continuity of the rapporteurship means the same justice who oversaw the examination of the licensing framework is now weighing the measure that would dismantle it.
A reversal of the government’s own policy
The core of the dispute is that the federal government prohibited, by provisional measure, an activity it had itself regulated and licensed through paid authorisations, or outorgas. Brazilian specialist outlet BNLData has argued that the legal uncertainty now surrounding the sector was created by the government itself when the Planalto banned an activity it had previously regulated and licensed.
In an article published by O Globo, legal scholar Gustavo Binenbojm argued that by opting for prohibition the State neither eliminates demand for betting nor makes illegal operators disappear — a line of argument that goes to the proportionality of the measure, one of the central questions the Supreme Court will have to resolve as it works through ADI 8027 and the parallel actions.
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed under the GamblingZine editorial verification process.
Sources
- Assista ao vivo a audiência pública sobre proibição das bets — Independent reporting (published 2026-11-03)
- bnldata.com.br — Authoritative secondary source
- bnldata.com.br — Authoritative secondary source
- bnldata.com.br — Authoritative secondary source
Reporting verified against the sources above; retrieval timestamps are preserved in the editorial record.