The Brazilian Ministry of Economy is looking for ways to reinvigorate the country’s horse betting industry, which is bleeding revenue and patronage. Some ideas include tying lottery games to horse racing and introducing bets on virtual and historic racing.
New wording to the Provisional Measure of Economic Freedom would allow tracks to generate revenues through means beyond traditional horse racing. Talking to Folha de Londrina, lawyer and gaming expert Luiz Felipe Maia said that the Brazilian Jockey Clubs say they need to be able to diversify and make other forms of betting available in order to overcome their present financial difficulties.
“At present, the problem with the Jockey Clubs is that the cost of running a race is very high. Bets are often not enough to pay for the cost of the race,” said Maia.
In Brazil, Jockey Clubs own racing tracks and are responsible for running them and each track is granted a license to offer horse race betting in betting shops in the area in which they are licensed. Nationwide there are now more than 150 betting shops which are officially recognized by the Brazilian Jockey Club and there are four tracks nationwide.
Although tracks in some case have had to sell off assets in order to pay off debts they have managed to survive so far. Through a number of agreements Brazilian race tracks are now being broadcast live around the world commingling local races into single pools betting.
