In January, rapporteur Minister André Mendonça suspended the operation of sports betting and online games nationwide by the so-called ‘Bets’ accredited by Loterj, obliging the autarchy to adopt geolocation criteria to prevent operations outside the limits of Rio de Janeiro.
After back and forth, the rapporteur put an end to the matter by not accepting Loterj's appeals and determined that if the measure was not adopted, fines would be applied to Loterj and its president, Hazenclever Lopes Cançado.
In view of this, Loterj determined by means of an ordinance the immediate suspension of operations outside the state limits until the Supreme Federal Court rules on the merits of the action.
In a Virtual Plenary, the STF is discussing André Mendonça's decision regarding the interruption of the offer of bets outside Rio de Janeiro and for now the decision is favorable to the rapporteur, with seven votes in favor of his report and one against.
However, this Friday (21), in his vote, Minister Luiz Fux gave new encouragement to Loterj and the accredited operators: “I agree with the rapporteur Minister, with the reservation of modulating the effects of the decision to preserve the possibility of executing the contracts in force and signed before the granting of the precautionary measure.”
Minister Luiz Fux would not even need to express his opinion, since the voting dynamics would be to simply agree or disagree with the rapporteur's decision. With this statement, Fux may play an important role at this time if he can change the position of his peers. This is because the vote will go until 11:59 p.m. this Friday (21) and all ministers can still review their votes.
Since there are contracts in force and the accredited companies have received the order from Loterj to suspend the offer of bets outside the limits of Rio de Janeiro, there are strong indications of losses to the licensed operators and possible lawsuits for losses and damages or others against the agency may be filed.
Luiz Fux's vote is in the direction of allowing the companies already accredited to continue their national operations. It remains to be seen whether his vote will influence other ministers to change their positions to avoid new legal demands.
Source: GMB
