Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet has asked Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court (STF) to halt lawsuits across the country that challenge the federal government’s prohibition on online betting platforms. The request puts the immediate focus on procedural consistency rather than the underlying merits of the ban.

Gonet’s position is that courts have produced diverging outcomes, with some decisions allowing betting operators to function despite the federal restriction. In his filing, he said the spread of rulings authorizing betting houses created legal uncertainty and argued that cases should be frozen until the STF delivers a final constitutional ruling.¹

“The Office of the Prosecutor-General therefore understands that this is a case for granting the exceptional measure of suspension of proceedings,” Gonet said, requesting a nationwide stay on cases involving the constitutionality of Provisional Measure 1,394/2026 until the court resolves the dispute.¹

The petition was sent to Justice Luiz Fux, the rapporteur for four cases contesting the measure. The immediate practical stakes were illustrated a day earlier, when a federal appeals court in São Paulo overturned an injunction that had permitted three online betting companies to operate.¹

The alternative framing emphasizes the breadth of Gonet’s request: it seeks to suspend betting-related actions throughout Brazil, not to settle the legality of the ban itself.² That distinction leaves both sides of the underlying dispute awaiting the STF’s eventual decision. For Gonet, a pause would prevent further inconsistent orders; for those contesting the prohibition, it would delay judicial review of a measure they say warrants constitutional scrutiny.