The Attorney General of the Republic (PGR), Paulo Gonet, has filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Federal Court (STF) against most sections of the laws that regulated online gambling and betting in Brazil. In it, he questions the constitutionality of Laws 13.756 and 14.790, as well as the decrees issued by the Ministry of Finance this year to regulate the sector.
The Attorney General's Office believes that the legislation is “insufficient to protect fundamental consumer rights.” For Gonet, the legislation infringes on social rights to health and food, consumer rights, property rights, and the rights of children and adolescents, the elderly, and people with disabilities.
The PGR seeks an injunction against the norms, which would result in the prohibition of sports betting and online games in Brazil. The request from the Attorney General's Office is for an injunction against Laws 13.756/2018 and 14790/2023, as well as the decrees issued by the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets of the Ministry of Finance.
“In this demand, it is not claimed that the system of virtual bets is, in itself, impossible to reconcile with the framework of the Constitution. However, it is recognized that the specific system adopted by the legislator in Laws No. 13.756/2018 and No. 14.790/2023 does not meet minimum requirements for the preservation of constitutional goods and values placed at risk of serious harm by the way the activity is currently legally structured,” says the document.
The Attorney General states that bets, given their “high addictive potential,” cannot be regulated by the Legislature without simultaneously imposing sufficient standards to inhibit problems related to the activity, especially those that can affect vulnerable groups.
“The balancing of the freedom to bet and for companies to come to exploit betting services with the medical consequences that may arise for a significant number of citizens calls for defensive legislative measures,” states Gonet.
With the action, the Attorney General seeks the immediate suspension of the laws and decrees and the return of the activity to the legislation that makes it illegal (Law of Contraventions).
The action was presented on the day of the opening of the public hearing in the STF that analyzes the behavior of the sports betting and online gaming sector. During the hearing, the minister stated that the judgment on the merits of another action (ADI 7.721), presented by the National Confederation of Commerce of Goods, Services, and Tourism, will take place in the first half of 2025.
Source: GMB
