André Gustavo Sales Damiani, Mayra Malofre Ribeiro Carrillo and Marina de Almeida Santos Dias
André Gustavo Sales Damiani, Mayra Malofre Ribeiro Carrillo and Marina de Almeida Santos Dias
After the storm that the presidential elections installed in the public debate, everything indicates that soon the parliamentarians will re-establish the discussion of the bill that intends the legalization of games of chance at national level. Although the president-elect has already signaled his intention to regionalize the regulation of the activity, as in the US, the publication published by Senado Notícias guarantees that the bill proposing a single rule for the exploitation of games in the country is ready for deliberation in and continues to share opinions in the House.
While some parliamentarians maintain that legalization will bring invaluable economic and social benefits for Brazil, others are quite reticent, arguing that the activity represents a setback in the fight against organized crime, given the traditionally established connection between gambling and the laundering of capital from corruption, trafficking and other organized criminal activities.
In this sense, if the eagerness to increase and modernize the Brazilian economy surpasses the unfounded fear of the conservative party, it is certain that a requirement of the future law will address the rigor with which the public administration will supervise the activity, since the divergent portion of the congressmen will demand rigid legal mechanisms of control and armor of the operation in relation to the unwanted practices.
It is true that the legislative proposals foresee more than 15 (fifteen) preventive measures, among them the restriction of activity for those who are vested with elective mandate, mandatory allocation of billing percentages and criminalization of fraud and adulteration of results, in addition to the requirement of financial suitability and fiscal regularity of the physical and legal persons involved in the operation of the games, as a requirement for granting the authorization contemplated by the bills under discussion. The Project also provides for penalties for those who practice acts considered as illegal or criminal, admitting from fines and seizures of documents and equipment until cancellation of said authorization and imprisonment of those involved.
Add to this the legal uncertainty that weighs on the initiative of Brazilian entrepreneurs, especially when it comes to taxation, labor rights and, now, data processing, so that the national scenario seems to discourage the exploitation of gambling. Is it worth undertaking in this context? Are the risks compatible with the expectation of profitability? Would internal controls be enough to rule out the risk of criminal liability? Is it financially feasible to gather evidence that the operation complies with legal requirements? These and other equally relevant questions can drive away entrepreneurs interested in this niche and jeopardize the real purpose of releasing the activity. For the cautious, however, the scenario will be favorable.
It is no longer surprising that sports betting has long warmed the European and North American economies and more recently neighboring economies, moving only in South America to more than 300 million dollars and almost 5 million tourists per year. In Uruguay, for example, Brazilian capital accounts for about 50% of casino revenue, which is the destination of approximately 500,000 tourists from Brazil. Therefore, there is no doubt as to the prospect of profitability of the business in national territory.
The risks of the operation, in turn, will require an excellent compliance program. The concept, which has attracted attention and investment from entrepreneurs and the public sector worldwide, seems to be tailor made for those who seek to mitigate risks and simplify the range of obligations required of agents in this segment. In a short time, it is possible to design internal policies that are personalized and aligned with the requirements of future regulations, which lead to the implementation of a set of good practices and internal controls, with a view to reducing the possibility of non-conformities and generating data that facilitate oversight by public agents competent authorities.
A well-established compliance program will perform in any size and type of business organization, as long as it engages partners, managers and employees, and facilitates the traceability of data produced by internal operations. Hence the indispensability of good (and accessible) Information Technology - IT resources together with strategically incorporated tools, which together will enhance the practices cultivated within the corporation. All this apparatus will facilitate the obtaining of the authorization of the operations of the establishments and will show the good practices that will be able to exempt the entrepreneur of the obligations of conformity and prevention to the crime and the illicit ones, thus revealing the harmony between the behavior of the company and the exigencies of the future law. In short, the valorization of compliance by the entrepreneur can still affect the marketing of the establishment, serving as a competitive differential for the more conservative public.
It seems clear, on the face of it, that the eventual approval of the Bill will unlock an excellent business opportunity for those willing to invest in the protection and shielding of their operation and, above all, in simplifying the obligations required of the entrepreneur who intends to exploit the games of chance in Brazil in a conscious way.
André Gustavo Sales Damiani
Mayra Malofre Ribeiro Carrillo
Marina de Almeida Santos Dias
