The minister ordered the immediate halt of ongoing operations and prohibited municipalities from carrying out any new actions related to these activities.
The rationale used by the rapporteur is that municipalities do not have constitutional authority to operate in this sector. The minister also requested the convening of an extraordinary session in the virtual plenary to ratify the monocratic decision he issued.
According to Nunes Marques, lotteries are activities of national and regional interest, subject to federal legislation and to the administrative authority of the Union and the States, which makes local initiatives like those that have emerged in recent years unfeasible.
Law 14,790 amended Law 13,756/2018 and centralized within the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting of the Ministry of Finance (SPA/MF) the responsibilities for regulating and licensing companies authorized to operate sports betting and online games. By adding Article 35-A to the legislation, the text established the regulatory framework for lottery operations by the States and the Federal District, excluding municipalities.
The action filed by Solidariedade cites Belo Horizonte and 21 other cities that enacted regulations to establish municipal lotteries. Nunes Marques, however, listed another 70 municipalities by name as examples of the rapid expansion of the model. He highlighted that more than 80 cities have enacted such regulations in the past three years, 55 of them in 2025 alone.
According to Nunes Marques, the implementation of operations in cities across 17 states constitutes a scenario of “unconstitutional metastasis,” posing a risk of undermining federal regulation, enabling the proliferation of unauthorized companies, and creating competitive imbalances among federative entities.
In addition to ordering the immediate cessation of operations, Nunes Marques imposed daily fines of R$ 500,000 (US$94,000) for municipalities and companies that continue the service, and R$ 50,000 (US$9,400) for mayors and executives who disobey the order.
The SPA, the National Telecommunications Agency (Anatel), which oversees the telecommunications sector, and the National Association of Games and Lotteries (ANJL) were notified of the decision so they may adopt measures to reinforce the blocking of illegal betting platforms.
Source: GMB
