"The sanction of the new legal framework and the privatization of the instant lottery (Lotex), expected to happen next February, guarantee the structure so that the market can at least double in size in the coming years," said the secretary of Fiscal, Energy and Lottery of Finance, Alexandre Manoel da Silva, in an article about the book.
The Lotex auction - an arm of instant lotteries of the Caixa Econômica Federal - would be held at the end of November, but was postponed by the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) to next year, under the government of President-elect Jair Bolsonaro (PSL), despite the adjustments in the announcement that made payment conditions more flexible for the winner.
Before that, the government had tried, unsuccessfully, to sell the Lotex concession on two occasions. The Ministry of Finance said last year that it expected a minimum bid equivalent to US$255 million for Lotex. When it was announced that the auction would be held in November, the expectation of collection with the grant was adjusted by BNDES to at least 164 million in three years, with a concession term of 15 years.
On Monday, Silva also assessed that the new legal framework for the sector, sanctioned by President Michel Temer last week, "will allow us to implement the competitive model in Brazil and break a monopoly that has existed in the country for 55 years."
According to Finance, the legislation unifies regulations that were dispersed, delimits the allocation of resources and opens space for the regulation of the competitive model of lottery exploration in the country.
In 2017, the lottery market grossed almost US$3.6 billion, equivalent to 0.21 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and destined more than US$1.55 billion for the financing of public policies.
Source: GMB / Reuters
