Brazil appeals court suspends Stake's injunction

The court protection that let Stake Brazil keep operating its betting site until 25 October lasted one day. On 9 October the President of the Federal Regional Court of the 3rd Region (Tribunal Regional Federal da 3ª Região, TRF-3), Judge Luis Antonio Johonsom di Salvo, granted the federal government's request and suspended the preliminary injunction (*liminar*) that a federal court in São Paulo had issued on 8 October. We reported that injunction on 9 October; this decision replaces it.

What the TRF-3 decided

The Union, represented by the Attorney General's Office (Advocacia-Geral da União, AGU), asked the court to suspend the decision of the 9ª Vara Cível Federal de São Paulo. That decision had preserved Stake's authorisation under Portaria SPA/MF nº 263/2025 until 25 October, the date on which Provisional Measure (Medida Provisória, MP) 1.394/2026 extinguishes all betting authorisations, and had barred the authorities from blocking or redirecting stake.bet.br solely on the ground that the end of the authorisation had been brought forward.

The suspension runs "until the original case is finally decided or until a further decision of this Presidency," the decision says. Stake had filed a submission asking the court to refuse the request, the decision records.

Why the court sided with the government

A suspension of this kind does not look again at whether the lower court applied the law correctly. It asks whether carrying out the injunction would seriously harm public order. Judge Johonsom di Salvo found that it would. "The circumstance that only one company remains authorised to carry on the economic activity on a regular basis, while the others submit to the restrictions set by the government, shows a regulatory asymmetry," he wrote (translated from Portuguese).

He also pointed to a knock-on effect: leaving the injunction in place could encourage other operators affected by the same MP to seek similar orders. And he noted that the constitutionality of the MP is already before the Supreme Federal Court (STF), in the direct actions ADI 8.024, 8.027 and 8.028, so piecemeal changes by lower courts would increase legal uncertainty.

The decision does not rule on the merits of Stake's case and does not decide whether the MP is constitutional, as g1 and Poder360 point out.

What it means

With the injunction suspended, federal authorities may resume the restrictions and blocking measures the MP sets out against Stake's site, g1 and Poder360 report. Stake's authorisation no longer has the court protection it received on 8 October, and the 25 October date the MP set for the end of all authorisations still stands.

For players, the general rules on balances and withdrawals during the ban are in our explainer on refunds after the shutdown. The government's separate case against eight betting firms is also still going.

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