Brazil’s ministries split over Minas Gerais decree restricting betting ads, while both say the STF case has been mooted

Two ministries in the same federal government sent the Brazilian Supreme Federal Court different readings of the same state decree. In practice, that matters because the dispute sits right on the line between state-level restrictions and federal control over betting and advertising.

1. In ADI 8014, brought by the Associação Nacional de Jogos e Loterias (ANJL) against Decree No. 49.279 of 20 August 2026 from the State of Minas Gerais, the decree bans advertising, promotion, commercial publicity, and sponsorship by fixed-odds betting operators on state public assets and at events promoted or supported by the Minas Gerais executive branch. It also reaches adult-content platforms.
2. Both the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Sport told rapporteur Justice Flávio Dino that Provisional Measure No. 1.394 of 25 September 2026, which banned bets nationwide, had drained the case of subject matter. That is the procedural headline; the substantive split is the interesting part.
3. The Ministry of Finance said the decree’s constitutionality would be “questionable” and that Minas Gerais appears to have entered areas reserved to the Union, which legislates on lotteries under Article 22, XX, of the Constitution and on commercial advertising under Article 22, XXIX. The Finance filing, signed by Minister Dario Durigan on 27 October at 19:24, forwarded PGFN/CRJ Information No. 763/2026 and SPA Technical Note No. 7012/2026/MF from the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA).
4. The SPA note, signed by Secretary Daniele Correa Cardoso on 15 October, says Minas Gerais “apparently confuses” the Union’s legislative competence with the state’s administrative competence. On the merits, Finance effectively sides with ANJL’s argument, made by lawyers Pietro Cardia Lorenzoni and Bernardo Cavalcanti Freire, but still asks the STF not to rule on the issue because the case should be dismissed without judgment on the merits for loss of subject matter.
5. The Ministry of Sport took the opposite view on the merits. Its Office No. 228/2026/MESP/GAB, signed by Minister Paulo Henrique Perna Cordeiro on 21 October at 16:10, forwarded Legal Consultancy Opinion No. 00141/2026/CONJUR-MESP/CGU/AGU, prepared on 13 October and approved the next day by legal counsel Guilherme Assunção Fagundes. The ministry’s central position is that the decree is “juridically defensible” and can be preserved as an exercise of the state’s administrative autonomy.

One useful detail for operators: the decree is not limited to betting brands. It also covers adult-content platforms, which is the kind of cross-vertical restriction that tends to matter when states start treating gambling media, sponsorship, and adjacent digital categories as one regulatory package.