Brazil’s lottery operators are engaged in a legal war with their country’s mercurial president over whether they must continue operating during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Earlier this month, some Brazilian states ordered the shutdown of local lottery retailers in a bid to minimize further transmission of the COVID-19 coronavirus. The Loterias Caixa unit of the Caixa Econômica Federal state bank ordered a three-month halt to Federal Lottery draws to prevent customers from going out to buy tickets.

Last Wednesday, President Jair Bolsonaro issued an amendment to a decree intended to ensure the continued operation of ‘essential’ businesses. The amendment added lottery retailers (and later, churches) to the list of sectors that are considered “indispensable to meet the urgent needs of the community.”

Bolsonaro (pictured) subsequently claimed that the “armored” glass separating lottery retailers from their customers would ensure that “the virus will not pass.” The president added that the “neurosis of closing everything is not working” and the government needed lottery revenue to ensure it could pay for COVID-19 mitigation efforts.