‘Bets’ public hearing at STF to gather operators, Central Bank, psychiatrists and football clubs

The clubs Fluminense, Botafogo, and Cruzeiro have requested participation. The teams have not yet defined the representatives who will represent them.

Among the representatives of the betting industry are the National Association of Games and Lotteries (ANJL) and the Brazilian Institute for Responsible Gaming (IBJR), which has requested to participate as amicus curiae. The Rio de Janeiro State Lottery (Loterj) and the Paraná State Lottery (Lottopar) are also expected to participate.

The president of the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU), Bruno Dantas, and the Minister of Human Rights, Macaé Evaristo, are other names on the preliminary list of speakers. The Central Bank is expected to send the Deputy Attorney General of the Legal Consultancy and Extrajudicial Representation Department, Lucas Alves Freire, to participate as a speaker.

The preliminary list also includes the president of the Brazilian Association of Psychiatry, Antônio Geraldo da Silva, and the president of the Brazilian Federation of Banks (Febraban), Isaac Sidney Menezes.

The public hearing was convened by STF Minister Luiz Fux in the context of a lawsuit filed by the National Confederation of Commerce of Goods, Services, and Tourism (CNC), which requests that the court declare the law regulating betting, sanctioned in December 2023, unconstitutional.

In the lawsuit, the CNC argues that Law 14,790/2023 promotes increased family debt and impacts in the economic, social, and public health spheres, primarily affecting the most vulnerable social classes.

In the convening order, Fux stated that the hearing aims to clarify issues related to mental health, the neurological impacts of gambling on human behavior, the economic effects of the practice on commerce, its effects on household economies, and the social consequences of this new regulatory framework.

The preliminary list is as follows:
 

1. National Confederation of Commerce of Goods, Services and Tourism (CNC) – speakers: Felipe De As Tavares and Fabio Gomes Morand Bentes
    
2. Solidariedade – speaker: Paulo Pereira da Silva (president)
    
3. Ministry of Finance – speaker: Regis Dudena (Secretary of Prizes and Betting)
    
4. Central Bank – speaker: Lucas Alves Freire (Deputy Attorney General – Department of Legal Consultancy and Extrajudicial Representation)
    
5. Federal Court of Accounts – speaker: President Bruno Dantas
    
6. Office of the Attorney General – speakers: Nathália Geraldo de Santi and a Deputy Attorney General to be appointed
    
7. Ministry of Human Rights – speaker: Minister Macaé Evaristo
    
8. Ministry of Racial Equality – speaker: Ana Míria dos Santos Carvalho Carinhanha (Deputy Executive Secretary)
    
9. Ministry of Justice and Public Security:
   (a) Department of Asset Recovery and International Legal Cooperation – DRCI – speaker: Bernardo Antônio Machado Mota (General Coordinator of Institutional Articulation)
   (b) Secretary of Digital Rights – speaker: Lílian Manoela Monteiro Cintra de Melo
    
10. Ministry of Health – speaker: Gabriella de Andrade Boska (nurse)
     
11. Financial Activities Control Council (COAF) – speaker: Rafael Bezerra Ximenes de Vasconcelos (Director of Supervision)
     
12. Ministry of Social Development and Fight Against Hunger – speakers: André Quintão Silva (National Secretary of Social Assistance), Clara Carolina de Sá (Director of the Department of Management of the Unified Social Assistance System), Maria Helena Gabarra Osório (General Coordinator of Access Regulation and Normative Affairs of SUAS), and Eliane Aquino Custódio (National Secretary of Citizenship Income)
     
13. National Secretary of Sports Betting and Economic Development of the Ministry of Sports – speaker: Giovanni Rocco
     
14. Federal Public Defender's Office (DPU) – speaker: Leonardo Cardoso de Magalhães (Federal Public Defender General)
     
15. Brazilian Institute of Legal Gaming (IJL) – speaker: Magno José Santos de Sousa (president)
     
16. National Association of Games and Lotteries (ANJL) – speaker: Pietro Cardia Lorenzoni – request for amicus curiae
     
17. Women of Brazil Group – speaker: Andreia Schroder (sociologist and master's degree in Statistics for Social Sciences)
     
18. Educafro – speaker: Frei David Santos (executive director)
     
19. Federal Council of the Brazilian Bar Association (CFOAB) – speaker: Daniel Corrêa Homem de Carvalho (President of the Special Committee on Sports, Lottery, and Entertainment Law)
     
20. National Council for Advertising Self-Regulation (Conar) – speaker: Juliana Nakata Albuquerque (Executive VP)
     
21. Loterj
     
22. Lottopar
     
23. Brazilian Association of Psychiatry – speakers: Antônio Geraldo da Silva (president) and Hermano Tavares (professor at USP and member of the Addictions Psychiatry Committee of the ABP)
     
24. Brazilian Federation of Banks (Febraban) – speaker: Isaac Sidney Menezes Ferreira (president)
     
25. Birgitte Sand (Danish) – speaker: Birgitte Sand (former Executive Director of the Danish Gambling Authority)
     
26. Carlos Hernández Rivera (Spanish) – speaker: Carlos Hernández Rivera (former Director General of the "Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego" – DGOJ)
     
27. Alana Institute
     
28. International Gaming Association (aigaming) – speakers: Waldir Eustáquio Marques Júnior and Márcio Borges Malta
     
29. Brazilian Institute of Business and Tax Law Studies – speaker: Leonardo Ribeiro Pessoa (president)
     
30. Economic Regulation Laboratory of the Law School of the State University of Rio de Janeiro – speakers: Andrea Magalhães, André Ribeiro Tosta, Carina de Castro Quirino, José Vicente Santos de Mendonça, and Rodrigo Grieco Penna
     
31. National Academy of Sports Law (ANDD) – speakers: Paulo Sergio Feuz and Terence Zveiter (president)
     
32. Brazilian Institute for Consumer Protection – speaker: Walter José Faiad de Moura
     
33. Inter-union Department of Statistics and Socioeconomic Studies (Dieese) – speaker: Adriana Márcia Marcolino (Technical Director)
     
34. Laboratory of Law, New Technologies, and Disruptive Business Models at USP – speakers: Isadora Valadares Assunção and Pedro Henrique Figueiredo (coordinators)
     
35. Professor of PPGD at UNIFOR, responsible for the Research Project on “Sports Betting and the Prevention of Pathological Gambling: Improvement of Law 13.756/2018 and the use of algorithms to monitor at-risk players” – speaker: Eduardo Rocha Dias
     
36. Brazilian Association of Criminal Lawyers (Abracrim) – speaker: Maíra Fernandes (president of the Economic Criminal Law Commission of Abracrim-RJ)
     
37. Brazilian Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters (Abert) – speaker: Gustavo Binenbojm
     
38. National Association of Retirees, People with Disabilities, the Elderly, Pensioners, and Social Security Beneficiaries – speaker: Maria Luiza F. de Almeida Neri (president)
     
39. Fluminense Football Club – speaker to be confirmed
     
40. Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas – speaker to be confirmed
     
41. Cruzeiro Esporte Clube – speaker to be confirmed
     
42. Rector of Zumbi dos Palmares University – speaker: José Vicente (rector) – Note: Did not indicate specific thematic relevance.
     
43. Institute for Retail Development – speaker to be confirmed – Note: The CNC will likely address the same aspects.
     
44. Brazilian Institute for Responsible Gaming (IBJR) – speaker: Celso Cintra Mori – request for amicus curiae – Note: The invited entities Brazilian Institute of Legal Gaming (IJL) and the National Association of Games and Lotteries (ANJL) will likely address the same aspects.

Source: CNN