After many false starts over the past 30 years, Brazil will finally open to gaming, beginning next month. And around 30 casino resorts will follow in the next five years, if legislators get their way.
As a strong Brazilian delegation of deputies joined Clarion Gaming's managing director Kate Chambers to cut the ribbon and declare open the 2020 ICE show yesterday morning, Clarion announced Gaming America Latina - Brazil, a new event, opening in October in Sao Paulo.
The Brazilian regulations for online sports betting are now in law and regulation is expected to come into effect next month (March), at which time licences for online sports betting and betting through retail outlets, will be issued. It is expected that the first legal games will be played before the end of this year.
The Brazilian delegation was in London to gather information to assist in the formulation of the next stage in liberalising one of the world's largest potential jurisdictions. The country's 27 states would each have at least one casino resort and some of the more intensely-populated states would have two or three. The country is looking at a potential of 30-35 major casinos.
The timescale suggests around five years before fresh legislation - likely to be introduced in 2021 - will see the first venues opened.
"The potential is huge," said Liliana Costa, LATAM Liaison at Clarion. "We saw the possibilities as far back as 2013 when we held our first Brazilian Gaming Congress (BGC) and subsequently we have also held our Brazilian Online Gaming Summit. Now we are going to combine these events the into one entirely new event, Gaming America Latina, which will be held in Sao Paulo on October 19 and 20 of this year."
Source: GMB
