GMB - How did you feel when you were called by the Brazilian Congress to contribute with your knowledge and experience? Why did you accept to participate?
Witoldo Hendrich - This invitation was very special, different than the usual ones. I am very honored about this invitation from Federal Congressman Evandro Roman. When he asked me to speak, also gave me the task to create a kind of panel, directed to the Brazilian Parliament, able to demonstrate the online gaming business. We created, then, a workflow that will be presented, piece by piece, by several experts. We will speak in a fluent sequence: me, Rui Magalhães (Estoril Sol Digital), Cristina Romero (Loyra Abogados), Alexandre Fonseca (AFX Gaming), Francesco Rodano (Playtech), Karen Marcela (GLI), Luis Felipe Maia (FYMSA Advogados), Marzia Turrini (BMM TestLabs), Braulio Melo (Chief of Federal Police and Congress Assessor), Mark Locke (Genius Sport), Tiago Barbosa (Sport Radar), José Augusto de Araújo Neto (Former Justice of State Court of Rio de Janeiro) e Pierre Tournier (RGA). Additionally, by direct invitation from the Congress, you will see the experts Roberto Brasil Fernandez, Edgar Lenzi and a few others taking care of different verticals of gaming.
You mean all these names came from your side?
Almost. I spoke with Roman and presented to him the skills of each one of the “panelists” their capabilities to help the Committee to understand the “business”, how it works, what is a success and what is a failure in different jurisdictions. Under his approval, we followed-on and sent the invitations. All names of this “panel” I referred above were just a suggestion I made, but all discussed and approved by Roman. It is a result of his effort, for sure.
What do you think that you and your company can contribute at this stage?
We are working hard for years. We are a payment provider and our competitive differential is the fact that we work 100% compliant with Brazilian law. We are very restrictive on it and we want to help the industry to get regulated the best as possible.
Do you consider it is positive to hold this hearing? Do you think it can become a step forward or just one more of those that Brazil already had?
This public hearing, in addition with the Parliamentary Front with Congressman Delegado Pablo and Bacelar, as Vice-President and President of the Front, are the most important events of the year, so far. Surely, we are going in the right direction.
From your perspective, with this audience and the new government ... do you see the legalization of the activity closer than ever in the country?
I believe so. But without euphoria. This “here we go” euphoria brought us disappointment in the past years. I think we should focus on quality of regulation, instead of its speed. I usually say that a bad regulation is the same as no regulation.
Source: Exclusive GMB
