Brazil Turns Page on Sports Betting as Vote Goes Ahead

Brazil marks a watershed moment in the history of its ongoing efforts to legalize gaming in the country turning shaping itself into one of the most important markets worldwide. While Brazil has not been too quick to act, the vote in the Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday gave the country a direction insofar gambling is concerned. The vote to bring up a federal gaming framework passed with 246 to 202 votes with Bill 442/91 now set to dictate the following months of frantic work that will result in the launch of the market.

While this outlook is promising, the country has been trying to legalize sports betting since 2019 when the efforts were renewed. The bill has been around for 30 years and it still needs to pass a plenary review. This means that it will most likely be returned repeatedly for amendments. Brazil will adhere to the best practices from other markets and will charge the Ministry of the Economy with monitoring the betting activity through new regulators.

As part of the country’s efforts to fight the grey market that may come along with the legalization efforts, the Ministry would obligate stakeholders to use a new Audit and Control System, enabling officials to follow closely bets placed in gaming machines or at gaming tables, for example.

Players will be required to comply with AML and KYC checks and use a government-issued document to register, it seems from a read of the proposal.

Illegal Gambling Has No Place in Brazil

Brazil is determined to enable online gambling but clamp down on illegal operations. This means that the country will bring a united front against offshore operators that target consumers and exploit their lack of familiarity with what websites are licensed and permitted to operate.

Offshore has been a big issue for places such as the United States, Canada, and Australia, but governments and regulators are bringing them under control.  Additionally, Brazil will try to avoid cash payments to guarantee that it can extract maximum benefits from its industry. License fees are already set, with commercial casinos asked to pay around $120,000. Licensed bingo operators will have to pay $3,900 per license, for example.

Brazil is also looking to introduce two new regulatory bodies which will be dealing with various levels of regulation. One, by the name of SINAJ, will be the monitoring body that will include a federal register of operators. Effectively, this will be the main entity that oversees the industry. The second regulator will specifically target problem gambling and will be established with the sole purpose of protecting vulnerable gamblers and keeping them away from harm. This will be the full remit of RENAPRO.

Social Causes to Benefit in Ukraine

The tax proceedings from a gambling levy will be used across different sectors of the economy which are expected to benefit from the cash tranches. One of those is the State Participation Fund which will get 16% of the total taxed revenue. Another 16% will go to the Municipal Participation Fund, and there will be other tranches allocated to sports programs and tourism.

Players will seemingly be the ones that will have to pay for their winnings at a rate of 20%. This is a smart move as it would allow the state to collect the money directly from the betting handle as opposed to the sports betting revenue collected by operators which is traditionally much smaller.

However, the government would not tax any winnings under $390. Much work remains to be done, but Brazil seems to be of one mind insofar sports betting is concerned. The country is soon to become one of the most important markets in the western hemisphere.