Rio lottery sues Brazilian government to suspend gambling whitelist

The Rio de Janeiro State Lottery (Loterj) sued Brazil’s federal government on Tuesday (29 October) in an attempt to have it suspend its list of approved gambling operators.

Filed in the 13th Federal Civil Court of the SJDF, the lawsuit requested the court to impose a preliminary injunction against the government that would suspend its published list of legal gambling operators until the licensing process has completed and the required fees have been paid.

The action is the latest in a series of legal fights between Loterj and the federal government, which has seen the lottery argue it should be permitted to licence operators on a national basis.

The government announced in September it planned to bring forward its regulatory timetable and allow only approved operators that have applied for a gaming licence to continue operating in the country.

This followed a money laundering scandal involving major sports betting businesses in Brazil’s grey market.

Previously, unlicensed businesses were to be permitted to operate until the launch of the regulated market on 1 January 2025.

The petition said: “If the Union has not yet granted any authorisations preceded by bidding, which, under the terms of Ordinance SPA/MF No. 1,475/2024, was postponed to January 1, 2025, there is obviously a regime of flagrant unconstitutionality in the exploration of the activity by third parties included in the Union’s list, therefore, companies included exclusively in the Union’s list are not authorised to perform the activity.”

The lawsuit comes as the Brazilian authorities continue their enforcement action against unapproved operators.

The Prizes and Betting Secretariat at the Ministry of Finance yesterday told the National Telecommunications Agency to block another 1,443 unapproved gaming sites.

This is in addition to the more than 2,000 sites the ministry ordered blocked earlier in October.

This blocking action applies to any business that did not request a licence prior to the 17 September deadline.

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