"If the regulation does not include mandatory implementation of integrity projects by the organizers of competitions and clubs, and monitoring of matches by specialized companies, we will be vulnerable to crimes provided for in the statute of the fan such as manipulation of bets, fraud in results, and money laundering," said Schmitt.
The most famous case of manipulation of results in Brazil happened in 2005, when 11 matches of the Brazilian Championship that had the referee Edilson Pereira de Carvalho were annulled after the revelation of the scandal. The former referee confessed to having participated in a tournament result manipulation scheme to favor online gamblers.
"I was surprised by the lack of this issue in regulation. We have not yet received consultation with our integrity committee at the FPF. But I will set the agenda for our meeting next week so that we can minimally support the president of the federation in presenting some amendment proposals. Match monitoring and educational programs must be included in the decree," Schmitt said.
In 2016, a new case shook football. The São Paulo Civil Police arrested nine suspects who had participated in a result manipulation scheme in Paulista Series A2 and A3, as well as lower divisions in the North and Northeast.
Among the factors that make Brazil attractive to results manipulation according to Schmitt are the large number of games, an unregulated betting market, with little public interest, low salaries paid to most athletes, combat mechanisms, prevention and insufficient control, and low contribution to integrity programs.
The Federal Government has already opened a new public consultation (on the website www.economia.gov.br) to collect the market contributions to the improvement of the decree. The deadline for sending suggestions is until the 27th of this month.
"It was a draft constituted with the players. Either the clubs were not heard or were not answered. It has a weak protection to the sports content. If we talk about sports betting, there must be a greater protection to the integrity of the system. It seems to me very shy. There is no provision for imprisonment in case of wrongdoing. We have nothing observing fraud. Overseeing the market will be very difficult. A fearful issue. We need to better regulate how this would be," analyzes Luiz Marcondes, president of the Iberoamerican Institute of Sports law.
A study by KPMG for the Ministry of Economy indicated the possibility of raising about R$ 4 billion (US$ 975mn) in taxes.
One of the country's leading experts in the country, attorney Pedro Trengrouse, an FGV professor and expert in gambling regulation at the University of Nevada, says he plans to propose amendments to the decree next week.
"The big issue is that if this decree is not accompanied by an MP revoking paragraph 2 of article 42 of the Pelé Law, the damage to clubs can be almost R$ 1 billion (US$ 244mn). In this context of the regulation of sports betting in Brazil, it is fundamental to completely eliminate paragraph 2 of article 42 of Law 9.615 / 98, whose current text is an affront to the constitutional principle of free enterprise, conflicts with the right of sports entities to be fully remunerated for the use of their images and content, expressly making unfeasible the commercialization of the so-called ‘highlights’ and ‘betting rights’, which yield clubs almost R$ 1 billion (US$ 244mn) a year in England, Spain, Italy and France," says Trengrouse.
Approved in December 2018 as one of the last acts of then-president Michel Temer (MDB), bookmakers in Brazil are expected to start operating only in the second half of 2020. At the first public consultation, the Ministry of Economy received more than 1,800 suggestions. After the consultation comes to an end on September 27, the text should be signed by President Jair Bolsonaro (PSL). After six months from the publication of the decree, the bookmakers can start operating.
"What I found positive is free exploitation, there will be no government grant. What could disrupt the market and vitiate the system. A government institution giving the concession could be bad. Taxation will be in line with the company's revenue," finished Marcondes.
Source: Thiago Braga - Lei em campo UOL
