ANJL to take Minas Gerais betting ad ban to Brazil’s Supreme Court after August 20 decree

The Associação Nacional de Jogos e Loterias (ANJL) says it will file an Ação Direta de Inconstitucionalidade (ADI) with the Supremo Tribunal Federal (STF) against a decree from the Government of Minas Gerais that bans fixed-odds betting advertising in public spaces and state-owned facilities. For PSPs and operators, the issue is not just one of media inventory: it is about whether a state can carve out its own rules for a market that the industry says is regulated at federal level.

1. The decree, announced on Thursday, August 20, prohibits betting ads on placards and billboards in places such as Mineirão Stadium, highways, and bus stations in Minas Gerais. It also orders the state lottery, Loteria Mineira, to end the sports betting operations it maintains in the state.
2. ANJL says the measure goes beyond the powers of the states and interferes with a federal competence, creating legal uncertainty. In its statement, the association called it a “different regulatory treatment for a sector subject to national rules.”
3. The Instituto Brasileiro de Jogo Responsável (IBJR) also weighed in, saying the discussion on betting advertising needs to be technical and involve dialogue between the public authorities and the regulated sector. The group added that fixed-odds betting is supervised by the União and the Ministry of Finance, and that any changes to ad rules should be discussed at the federal level to preserve legal certainty and regulatory predictability for operators that invested in Brazil’s regulated market.
4. This is not ANJL’s first trip down this road. In April, Governor Eduardo Leite sanctioned Lei Ordinária n. 16.508/2026 in Rio Grande do Sul, which imposed time restrictions and content requirements on sports betting platform advertising, with a four-month period to adapt. ANJL challenged that law in the STF as well.
5. On Tuesday, August 18, the Procuradoria-Geral da República (PGR) asked for the suspension of the Rio Grande do Sul rule. The opinion, signed by Prosecutor General Paulo Gonet, said that while the law pursued constitutionally relevant objectives, it encroached on powers reserved to the União.

For high-risk operators, the practical question is simple: if Minas Gerais can tighten advertising rules on its own, other states may try the same. That is exactly the sort of fragmentation PSPs, acquirers, and bank partners try to avoid, because once compliance starts varying state by state, the “regulated market” stops looking very uniform very quickly.