Brazil appears to be backing away from its plan/threat to restrict online sports betting to a government-controlled monopoly.
Last Thursday, Brazilian Senator Benedito de Lira (pictured) filed an amended version of PLS 186/2014, the Senate’s version of plans to radically overhaul the country’s gambling market by authorizing everything from brick-and-mortar casinos to unspecified forms of online gambling.
Previous versions of the Senate bill contained only vague references to ‘electronic betting’ while President Michel Temer raised eyebrows a year ago by suggesting he favored restricting online activity to a sports betting monopoly that would be run by national lottery operator Caixa Econômica Federal.
The amended Senate bill still leaves it up to the federal government to oversee online gambling activity, the scope of which has been fleshed out to include “sports and non-sports betting games” as well as “online casino games.” The bill calls for a reasonable 15% tax on online gambling revenue, while land-based operators would pay 10%.
The amended bill also calls for the feds to “accredit those interested in the exploitation of games of fortune in any modalities, including casinos, sports betting and online games, throughout the national territory, except for bingo games.”
The amended 186/14 has been referred to the Senate’s Constitutionality and Justice Committee (CCJ) for further discussion and (hopefully) a vote by its members that would allow the bill to proceed to a vote by the full Senate.
The Chamber of Deputies has its own gambling bill, PL 442/1991, which Chamber President Rodrigo Maia has promised to bring up for a full vote in November. The two bodies will eventually have to resolve discrepancies between their respective bills and, while momentum for consensus appears to be growing, Brazil’s fractious political climate makes forecasting something of a bad bet.
