The Attorney General's Office understands that the legislation is “insufficient to protect the fundamental rights of consumers.” For Gonet, the legislation violates social rights to health and food, consumer rights, property rights, children and adolescents, the elderly and people with disabilities.
The PGR wants to grant an injunction against the rules, which would result in the prohibition of sports betting and online gaming in Brazil. The request from the Attorney General's Office is for the granting of an injunction against laws 13.756/2018 and 14790/2023, as well as the ordinances issued by the Prizes and Betting Secretariat of the Ministry of Finance.
“This lawsuit does not seek to state that the virtual betting system is, in itself, impossible to reconcile with the framework of the Constitution. It is a matter of recognizing, however, that the specific system adopted by the legislator in Laws no. 13.756/2018 and no. 14.790/2023 does not meet the minimum requirements for the preservation of constitutional assets and values ??that are at risk of serious harm due to the way in which the activity is currently legally structured,” says the document.
The attorney general states that betting, given its “high addictive potential,” cannot be regulated by the Legislature without simultaneously imposing sufficient standards to prevent problems related to the activity, especially those that may affect vulnerable groups.
“The consideration of the freedom to bet and companies that may exploit betting services with the medical consequences that may arise for a significant number of citizens requires defensive measures of a legislative nature,” states Gonet.
With the action, the attorney general wants the immediate suspension of the laws and ordinances and the return of the activity to the legislation that makes it illegal (Law of Criminal Misdemeanors).
The action was filed on the opening day of the public hearing at 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), filed by the National Confederation of Commerce of Goods, Services and Tourism, will take place in the first half of 2025.
Source: GMB
