Supreme Federal Court (STF) minister André Mendonça has rejected the Rio de Janeiro State Lottery’s (Loterj) appeal against the ban on state-licensed brands operating throughout Brazil.
Brazil court Loterj
On 2 January, Mendonça passed a preliminary decision to ban Loterj licensees from operating nationally across Brazil. The request was initially filed by the attorney general’s office (AGU) back in October, requesting the court suspended certain 2023 provisions that gave Loterj powers to regulate outside of Rio (Accreditation Notice 01/2023).
As a result of the court’s ruling, Loterj licensees were banned from accepting bets beyond Rio de Janeiro state borders, and also mandated to reintroduce geolocation tracking to ensure bets are only being accepted within the state.
Mendonça’s decision gave Loterj five days from 2 January to halt its nationwide activities and impose these geolocation mechanisms.
Loterj immediately appealed the decision, citing "defects, omissions, obscurities and material errors” in the ruling, which it claimed would lead to reductions in tax revenues and disrupt the regulated betting market in Brazil, which launched on 1 January.
However, Mendonça rejected Loterj’s appeal on 7 January, saying the state regulator’s legal rebuttal was only down to "mere disagreement with the decision under appeal” and had no real legal standing.
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