São Paulo court grants Stake partial reprieve from betting ban
A federal judge has let Stake Brazil keep taking fixed-odds bets until 25 October, pending restrictions, even as a presidential decree banning online betting remains in force.
The Federal Court of São Paulo has granted Stake Brazil Ltda a partial preliminary injunction allowing it to continue offering fixed-odds betting until 25 October 2026, provided the company meets a set of court-imposed conditions.
The ruling, issued by Federal Judge Cristiane Farias Rodrigues dos Santos of the 9th Federal Civil Court of São Paulo, stops short of suspending Provisional Measure No. 1.394/2026, the decree President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed on 25 September that banned online betting in Brazil.
The case arrives as the Supreme Federal Court's review of the measure remains stalled. Justice Luiz Fux, rapporteur for the Direct Actions of Unconstitutionality challenging the ban, has said he will rule only after the presidential election runoff on 25 October.
Stake had asked the São Paulo court to suspend the provisional measure's effects on its licence entirely, seeking to operate until 31 December 2029, the expiry date originally set by the Ministry of Finance's Secretariat for Prizes and Betting when it authorised the company. The judge rejected that request but granted a narrower alternative, preserving Stake's authorisation only until 25 October, the date the provisional measure itself names as the point at which licences lapse.
The injunction can be overturned sooner by a subsequent judicial ruling. For now, it bars federal authorities from ordering the blocking or redirection of the stake.bet.br domain purely on the basis that the authorisation has expired early, and prevents sanctions against the company for operating within the limits the court has set.
The government had directed all previously licensed betting platforms to redirect their websites to a page titled 'Brasil sem Bets,' though SBC Americas notes not every operator has complied.
Judge Rodrigues dos Santos based her decision on what she described as a discrepancy within the provisional measure: it set a 10-day window for betting platforms to go offline but stated that government authorisations would only expire after 30 days. In her reasoning, this gap implied that the decree's drafters had anticipated the need for a transition period for licensed operators. "If the authorization were legally non-existent from the moment the Provisional Measure was published, there would be no reason for the regulation to establish a specific later date for its expiration," she wrote.
The judge also noted that Stake had been directly targeted by a notice from the Ministry of Justice and Public Security ordering its domain redirected from 6 October, and found that the government could not fully enforce the expiry of authorisations ahead of the deadlines the regulation itself sets, without specific justification. She stressed the injunction does not rule on the constitutionality of the provisional measure and does not guarantee Stake a permanent right to keep operating.
Stake is required to meet 12 conditions during this window, including bettor identification, age verification and anti-money-laundering controls, alongside responsible gambling measures.
In a statement sent to SBC Notícias Brasil, Stake said the ruling represents "an important signal for Stake Brasil and for all those operating under state authorization and oversight," and argued the court had reaffirmed the principle of legal certainty for operators who obtained licences through compliance and investment.
SBC Notícias Brasil also sought comment from two of Brazil's main betting trade bodies, the National Association of Games and Lotteries and the Brazilian Institute of Responsible Gaming, given that the ruling could open the door for other operators to pursue similar court orders. Neither organisation had responded by the time of publication.