Federal government cannot monopolize lottery sector as nothing in the law prevents state governments from owning and operating their own lottery operations.
This ruling comes after state of Rio de Janeiro took federal government to Federal Supreme Court of Brazil when the federal government directed the state to shut its lottery operations two years ago.
Rio de Janeiro felt that closing down the lottery operations would cost the state hugely and would leave a hole in its system.
Notably, a 1944 decree allows both states and federal government to operate lottery systems. However, another decree 207/67 was approved by Federal government in 1967 granting exclusive rights to federal government to operate lotteries. This was done under the guise of preventing “the emergence and proliferation of prohibited games.” However, this 1967 Decree did not repeal earlier 1944 Decree, hence enabling states as well to operate lottery operations.
Minister Gilmar Mendes said “lotteries were public services and there was nothing in Brazil’s post-dictatorship constitution that allowed the feds to impose ‘a restriction on the exploitation of public services from that already provided for’ in the constitution. The lotteries provided states with necessary funds for contingencies and to shore up social programs”, reported CalvinAyre (October 2, 2020).