Stake secures court order to keep trading in Brazil amid betting ban
A São Paulo judge has granted Stake Brasil a temporary injunction against Brazil's national suspension of online betting and casino, with its licence protected until 25 October or a further ruling.
Stake Brasil has been granted a partial preliminary injunction allowing it to keep operating despite the federal government's nationwide suspension of regulated online betting and gaming.
Judge Cristiane Farias Rodrigues dos Santos of the Ninth Federal Civil Court of São Paulo issued the order on Thursday 8 October, according to EGR.
The ruling shields Stake's authorisation until 25 October 2026 or until a subsequent court decision is handed down, whichever arrives first.
While it stands, regulators are barred from blocking or redirecting the stake.bet.br domain, and no sanctions can be levied against the operator provided it trades within the terms set by the court.
The judge declined two further requests from Stake: to strike down the provisional measure entirely, and to continue operating until its licence term runs out at the end of 2029. The latter point remains open and is still being assessed on its merits.
The underlying dispute stems from a provisional measure signed by President Lula on 25 September, which outlawed the supply, intermediation and marketing of fixed-odds betting and online casino products with effect from 6 October.
That order dismantled the licensed market that had only opened in January 2025, and it specifies that operators will get no compensation and no refund of the BRL30m (£4.5m) they paid for their licences.
To stay within the injunction's scope, Stake must satisfy twelve conditions set by the court. These cover maintaining identity verification, blocking wagers funded through social welfare payments, pausing new marketing and player acquisition, permitting withdrawals, and keeping enough reserves on hand to cover customer balances.
Stake Brasil said in a statement that the court had confirmed a licence secured through compliance with legal requirements, payment of fees and substantial investment “confers a legal position that cannot be suppressed without due consideration,” adding that this reinforced “legal certainty and the stability of rules.”
The company said it had “fully complied” with the obligations imposed since the measure's publication and intended to continue doing so, and claimed it was, to its knowledge, the first licensed operator to secure a ruling of this kind.
Brazil's Ministry of Justice and Public Security has reported that 187 of the 188 operators previously authorised in the market had already ceased trading once the ban took hold.
The suspension applies immediately but requires congressional ratification within 120 days to become permanent, and lawmakers are not expected to take up the matter until after the presidential run-off on 25 October — the same date Stake's injunction is due to lapse.
That run-off follows a first round on Sunday 4 October in which no candidate cleared the 50% threshold; Flávio Bolsonaro polled 47.03% against Lula's 45.16%.
H2 Gambling Capital has estimated that as much as BRL30bn (£4.3bn) in activity could migrate to unlicensed operators as a consequence of the shutdown, while Regulus Partners has put the odds at 85% that the ban proves short-lived, lasting only weeks or months.