ANJL Challenges Minas Gerais Decree Banning Betting Ads in Public Spaces and State-Backed Events

The Associação Nacional de Jogos e Loterias (ANJL) has filed a direct action of unconstitutionality (ADI) at Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court (STF) against Decreto nº 49.279, which bars fixed-odds betting operators from advertising, sponsoring, or promoting commercial activity on state public property and at events promoted or supported by the Minas Gerais executive branch. For PSPs and operators, the point is simple: this is another test of how far a state can go when it tries to regulate a federally licensed high-risk vertical through advertising restrictions.

1. ANJL filed the lawsuit on Thursday, 03/09, against a decree signed by Governor Mateus Simões on 20 August and published in the state gazette on 21 August, when it took effect immediately. The case was assigned to Justice Flávio Dino.
2. The decree does not target bets alone. It also bans advertising for adult-content platforms and services of a sexual nature in the same state-controlled spaces and events. In other words, Minas Gerais bundled betting with other high-risk categories and drew the line at public assets and public sponsorship.
3. ANJL says the decree intrudes on exclusive federal powers in at least five constitutional ways. Its first formal argument is that fixed-odds betting is a lottery-like activity, so only the federal legislature can set primary rules under Article 22, item XX, of the Constitution, which covers consortia and lotteries.
4. The second formal argument is that commercial advertising falls under exclusive federal competence under Article 22, item XXIX. ANJL points to four STF precedents in which state laws restricting advertising were struck down despite protective justifications: ADI nº 5.424 and ADI nº 5.432, both against a Santa Catarina law banning pharmaceutical ads; ADI nº 4.761, involving a Paraná rule on cellphone advertising; and ADI nº 2.815, a Santa Catarina law banning erotic-content ads.
5. The third formal argument is legality: ANJL says the decree does not merely regulate an existing law but creates a new duty not to act, imposed directly on private parties. On the association’s reading, that kind of restriction would require at least a law passed by the competent federal entity, not a state decree.

ANJL says it represents 23 companies with federal licenses for fixed-odds betting, and those companies account for more than 50% of Brazil’s national market. The association also says its members are headquartered in seven of the eight states where operators currently have federal authorization — which gives this case more than local relevance. If the STF lets a state government wall off betting ads on public assets, other jurisdictions will notice.