The lack of regulation of sports betting in Brazil puts at risk the popular economy and the integrity of Brazilian sport.
Twelve years ago, an investigation by the Federal Police led to the annulment of 11 matches of the Brazilian Championship by manipulation of results. The referee Edílson Pereira de Carvalho was not even arrested because the Justice understood that the facts did not typify crime. Last year, the Game Over operation of the Civil Police arrested seven accused of defrauding sports results in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Norte, Maranhão, Ceará, Acre and Paraná. In 2017, thousands of bettors were left without prizes because operators did not honor bets on the results of the 13th round of Serie A, in which visiting teams won the majority of games, significantly increasing the prize pool.
The problem is old and global. Since 2005, Germany has been working with Interpol to fight the manipulation of results. In 2010, France set up the Regulatory Agency for Online Games, Portugal regulated sports betting in 2015, and the first site in Colombia began operating in January 2017.
Today, about 500 online betting sites offer Brazilian games. The majority registered abroad, operate in Brazil without any taxation, regulation, control or monitoring, collecting more than R$ 4 billion (USD 1.25) per year in the country. Significant loss of foreign exchange which, in 2016, negatively accounted for the equivalent of almost 10% of the Brazilian trade balance.
If sports betting has been running for a long time in Brazil, and we have suffered with its harmful effects, why have not they been regulated yet? Why is the integrity of Brazilian sport still at risk? Why does not the Public Treasury raise anything? Why does the popular economy go unprotected? Who cares about the status quo?
In practice, whoever is against legal gambling is in favor of illegal gambling. In 2015, the National Congress authorized Caixa to exploit sports betting. Article 30 of Law 13,155 was vetoed. In spite of the official justification, the reason was the permission that horse racing entities also explored sports bets in the country, and the government did not want to give away the monopoly.
It is true that the horse Racing issue distorted the very purpose of the law, which created the Program for Modernization of Management and Fiscal Responsibility of Brazilian Football (Profut) and there was no reason to grant Jockeys benefits, to the detriment of the football clubs themselves. However, it is also true that, in the current situation, any regulation is better than no regulation.
The global sports betting market is worth R$ 6.5 trillion (USD 2 trillion) a year. Secondary markets already operate on exchanges such as Betfair and Betdag. There are funds capturing investments for sports betting, such as Athletics in Las Vegas and Priomha, Australia. The changes in the consumption habits of the Z and millennium generations point to a tendency of betting growth as a form of engagement with sport. The delay in regulating sports betting represents risks and damages for the country. Brazil can not wait any longer.
Source: GMB / O Globo
