The Supreme Federal Court (STF) will review this Thursday (14) the decision by Minister Luiz Fux that ordered the government to adopt measures to prevent betting with money from social programs and to prohibit advertising aimed at children and adolescents. The president of the Court, Luís Roberto Barroso, has called an extraordinary session of the virtual plenary to judge the case at the request of Fux. The session will start at 11 a.m.
In a dispatch early Wednesday afternoon (13), the minister requested that the president of the Supreme Court, Luís Roberto Barroso, schedule a date for the decision to be endorsed by the other ministers, which was immediately done.
The trial, unlike others that are held in virtual plenary, will last only 1 day (from 11 a.m. to 11:59 p.m.). Lawyers involved in the case will have until 10:59 a.m. to present their statements. According to Barroso, the request was accepted due to the “grounded exceptionality of the case”.
Fux is the rapporteur of actions that question the law that regulated sports betting. In his decision, the minister also ordered that the rules provided in a decree from the Ministry of Finance, which prohibit advertising and propaganda of betting sites aimed at children and adolescents, be applied immediately.
The minister's decision was made in two actions, presented by the National Confederation of Commerce of Goods, Services and Tourism and by the Solidarity party. The CNC cited the economic, social, and health impacts on bettors and asked the STF to declare the law regulating bets unconstitutional.
The Attorney General's Office also presented an action questioning and requesting the repeal of the law. Given the complexity of the topic, the minister scheduled two public hearings, which took place this week, to discuss the effects of bets.
Fux stated in the decision that the debates in the hearings presented evidence of the “significant and deleterious impacts” of betting advertising on the mental health of children and adolescents and on the family budgets of people benefiting from social and welfare programs.
“It is evident that the current scenario of insufficient protection, with immediate deleterious effects, especially on children, adolescents, and the family budgets of beneficiaries of welfare programs, constitutes a manifest periculum in mora, which must be immediately removed, under penalty of the non-application of norms already issued, until January 2025, worsening the already critical current situation”, wrote Fux.
Source: GMB
