A working group of Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies is working to get a bill that would legalize gaming back on track.
They are laboring against headwinds and a deadline that is fast approaching. The group is led by Brazil Socialist Party deputy member Felipe Carrera, who will report to Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco.
The fate of the bill has lately become entangled in both chambers of Brazil’s Congress. In February the Chamber of Deputies passed Bill 442/1991 that authorized the creation of a legislative framework that would include casinos, horseracing, bingo and instant games. It included unified standards for businesses wanting to launch gaming in the country’s 26 states.
Simultaneously Brazil’s enterprise development agency SECAP has been working on a draft framework for sports betting that it published last week. It supports no limit on the number of licenses to operate in the market. It has been estimated that there are 3,000 illegal wagering sites in the country.
An authorization fee of R$ 22.2 million (US$ 4.5 million) would be charged that would be good for five years.
Under the decrees, sports betting companies would be forced to include warnings on gambling addictions on their advertisements. They would be required on both physical tickets and websites that accept wagers.
Advertisements that suggest betting as a way to address financial concerns or as a way to avoid personal problems, would not be allowed. Also banned would be the idea that game outcomes can be improved by becoming skillful.
Newly installed president of the Tourism Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, Rodrigo Coelho, says the legislation will attract more international tourism.
Carrera has said he thinks both decrees could be approved by July and before the national elections October 2. He noted that tourism was one of the first industries that fell victim to paralysis from Covid-19.
