Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies August 30 approved a bill that legalizes health and tourism lotteries, and private sports betting. The draft next goes to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for his signature or veto.
Some of the taxes raised will go to the National Health Fund and to Brazil’s tourism agency.
The bill’s sponsor, Deputy Giovani Cherini, commented, “This lottery will be the big bid to pay the nurses’ floor wage. The Ministry of Economy will manage it, which has a competent sector for this, which inspects, so everything will be within the law.” He added, “We want to open up the possibility to the private sector.”
A government critic observed, “It is not known what the methods will be for choosing this company. No bidding required to operate. This is a scandal, it is favoring some company that, of course, you already know who it will be.”
Sports betting receipts will be divided this way: 3.37 percent to taxes, 1.6 percent for branded sports entities and 95 percent for operator expenses.
In related news, Brazil’s Ministry of the Justice has ordered the country’s 54 football clubs and federations to submit information within 10 days about their advertising and sponsorship partnerships to determine if any are illegal.
The investigation follows concerns by the National Consumer Secretariat (Senacon) that the sports clubs are jumping the gun on such agreements before they actually become legal now that a sports betting law has been approved. Mainly the Secretariat wants to ensure that standards are in place before such agreements are reached.
The Ministry noted that most sports betting companies are based outside of the country. It added, “The initiative of the National Consumer Secretariat (Senacon) aims to determine which companies have formalized contracts with the clubs, most of which are headquartered outside Brazil.” It continued, “The law that created the [legal fixed-odds betting market] has not yet been regulated and, therefore, Senacon understands that the activity may be being explored without proper authorization and without any control, inspection or accountability mechanism.”
Sports betting rules were published several months ago and many hope they will be taking bets in time for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. However, no date has been announced.
