Brazil has Published its Sports Betting Regulations
The Ministry of Economy will serve as the controller. It will set a timeline – sometime in the next six months – for operators already doing business in Brazil to abide by these rules.
There’ll be no restriction on the number of licenses granted, and each license will be valid for five years. However, operators should pay a licensing fee of BRL22.2m (£3.6m/€4.2m/$4.4m).
Moreover, foreign-based operators must establish a subsidiary in Brazil and have sufficient funds and financial and economic capacity to function.
Rather than establishing a specific minimum amount of capital, the bill stated that whether a business’s financial capacity was “sufficient” would be determined by its share capital and the volume of bets it takes.
Operators will be allowed to offer wagers on both traditional sports and esports, as long as the players are not all minors.
From the start, licensees must promote responsible gambling and provide players with information on the subject, and include responsible gaming messaging in marketing messages.
Advertising messages should not also display betting as a remedy to individual, professional, or academic problems, as a substitute for jobs, or to achieve financial stability.
Advertisements must also not showcase or be directed at underage people, nor must they imply that a gambler can be consistently successful through competence.
Licensees should also have a “contractual relationship” with a global integrity monitoring organization, like the International Betting Integrity Association (IBIA). Furthermore, they should indeed share with the Ministry of Economy any information sent to a global integrity body.
The Ministry will create an exploratory “sandbox” regulatory system that will enable definite operators to release first before a full system is in place.
Within the next four months, it will provide details about this system, such as the basis for choosing operators.
The regulations will take effect 90 days after President Jair Bolsonaro signs them into law, which is scheduled to happen on May 10.
The process of legalizing fixed-odds sports betting in Brazil began in December 2018 with the passage of Provisional Measure 846/18. It gave lawmakers a two-year window, from now until 2020, to develop sports betting regulations, with the option of extending this period for two more years, bringing the final deadline to the end of 2022. Here is an article about the best features of online sports betting sites and it’s advantages!
Previously, operators were expected to pay 3% of their stakes in taxes, but this plan was abandoned in favor of a revenue-based system last year.
The regulations do not specify a tax rate, but they state that it will be based on revenue.
Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies also voted previously this year to legalize horse racing, casino, slot machines, online gaming, Jogo de Bicho, and bingo in the country.
The bill is currently being debated in the Senate.