The Ministry of Finance has a two-year term, extendable for another two years, to regulate the activity and will be responsible for the authorization and concession of betting lotteries. The new sports betting modality is called fixed odd betting, whereby, at the time of the betting, the bettor is able to win in the event of a hit.
In addition, what is collected by sports betting will be used to pay the prizes to the bettor, social security, the National Public Security Fund, education and football clubs.
The discussion on the legalization of bets was revived in Congress around a proposal by FGV professor Pedro Trengrouse, who presented a memorandum in which he advocated the regulation of sports betting, among other measures that, in his view, could generate more revenue for the federal and state governments, bettors and sports.
In an interview at the end of October at UOL's Olhar Olímpico blog, Trengrouse explained that only Brazilian soccer moves about US$ 1 billion in bets per year, but there is no regulation on this financial movement.
"Without regulation we do not have monitoring, we do not have taxation, we only have the risks. Most websites will not change from tax havens, but regulations allow for information exchange and monitoring, we can identify who is playing, how much. It manages to charge a site operating fee in the country," he said.
Five points to understand the legalization of sports betting in Brazil
Correio Braziliense asked the coordinator of the Getulio Vargas Foundation's Sports Management course, Pedro Trengrouse, to find out what changes with the new law.
1 - What changes?
With the sanction of the PM by President Michel Temer, fixed odd betting, popularly known as sports betting (when the amount that the bettor will receive is already known at the time of the bet), becomes legal in Brazil.
2 - When does it take effect?
According to the text of the PM, "the fixed odd betting lottery will be authorized or granted by the Ministry of Finance", which has a two-year term - extendable by two more - to regulate the activity. The ministry, for its part, said it could not estimate a deadline when regulation would occur. "Considering the complexity of this future operation, which involves physical and virtual commercialization channels, in addition to a large number of national and international stakeholders, the planning of the regulation will allow for the completion of the work in the shortest possible time, without, however, compromising the effectiveness of the regulatory and operational model of this new modality," says the area.
3- How will be the situation of foreign betting sites that already operate in Brazil?
First, it should be noted that these sites - such as SportingBet and Bet365, for example - can operate in Brazil because their headquarters are not in the country. Thus, they are subject only to the legislation of their respective countries of origin. For Pedro Trengrouse, this scenario should not change. "They will continue doing what they are doing, no one is going to come to Brazil, and the regulation will serve for cooperation with Brazilian authorities, monitoring, taxation of premiums and licenses," he says.
4 – What about other betting modalities, like casino, bingo and jogo do bicho?
All other betting modalities are prohibited. Both the House and the Senate have projects that provide for their regulation. The texts have already gone through commissions and public consultations, and are now waiting to be voted on in plenary only. The expectation of the specialists - considering, even, the change of legislature next year - is that it will happen soon. "It has to be remembered that the prohibition of these bets has never been discussed in Congress, it came from a decree-law of the New State Constitution, it has never been discussed by society, it is up to Congress to vote [the liberation] and already has a parliamentary front with 260 deputies in favor. There’s no reason not to be voted,” adds Trengrouse.
5 - What do the experts think?
"The Congress and the government need to discuss the issue with responsibility and can not deal with one modality while leaving the other side. The illegal market cannibalize the legal," adds the FGV professor. In a memo delivered to Congress during public hearings to discuss the topic, Trengrouse also lists some problems that the lack of regulation of these other modalities would be bringing to the country. Among them would be the exploitation of organized crime, the lack of assistance for gamblers and, more obviously, the amounts that the government would not be collecting in taxes.
Source: GMB
