Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Congress, September 13 approved a bill to regulate online sports betting and casinos, Bloomberg reported.
The bill included a high, 18 percent taxation rate that critics predict could strangle the nascent industry in its crib.
When all other contributions are counted, the effective tax rate is as much as 34 percent. Bill No 3626/23 amends Provisional Measure (PM) No 1,182 that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva issued in July, which gave Congress several months to consider the proposal.
After that, 277 amendments were proposed, of which only a few actually made it to the final draft. One of the most significant added online gaming to the original sports betting proposal.
The bill permits gamblers to place wagers on online (i.e. virtual) games as well as actual sporting events.
The bill also sets a R$30 million ($6,162,441) license fee for new casinos.
