According to the undersecretary, to ensure greater speed to the whole process, the Ministry of Economy included sports betting in the PPI (Investment Partnership Program) and entered the National Privatization Program adopted by the government with the objective of opening up to private initiative activities in which the presence of the Federal Public Administration is not essential.
“As we all know, the lottery is a public service and in order to move to private initiative, it needs to be privatized, which is why it was entered into the PPI. This will ensure greater speed in the entire process until the start of the sports betting operation, in addition to offering ample competition for the activity. The law passed in 2018 still has some flaws, such as the deal to be given in case of penalties and on the legal security of those who come to invest in the country. In the case of a concession, the insecurity ends, as there will be a very detailed contract pointing out rights and duties for both operators and the government,” he explained.
Waldir Marques stated that within the PPI, sports betting will gain visibility and speed in regulation. “The government will treat the issue as something strategic. Today the lottery industry is going through a very big crisis in Brazil due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We had a drop of more than 40% in the business. Currently, our physical operation represents 95% of the business and only 5% is online. With sports betting, the online operation will grow substantially and will be good for everyone involved. If they were already regulated and in operation, our revenue would not have fallen so much.”
According to him, the government is already analyzing the issue of hiring consultants by the BNDES for legal and financial advice to prepare all the studies necessary for a good bid for sports betting.
Waldir Marques commented that the Lotex concession was very difficult for the government. "BNDES did a very interesting and competent job, but it was the first time that it was involved in a privatization process of a public lottery service." So, everything turned into a good experience “and this gives us the guarantee, today, that we are going seriously and with the necessary comfort for the government to adopt the correct measures. With Lotex we opened the market and managed to attract two large multinational companies to Brazil,” he recalled.
The undersecretary said that “the BNDES has its own ways of contracting, but if they do not find professionals in the country, they will look abroad. Regarding the law itself, we understand that it needs changes. We identified three points that need to be changed, but we are waiting for the BNDES to hire consultants so that we can discuss such modifications. One of them is the form of taxation, which differs from the rest of the world, since the incidence of tax on the amount collected was approved, while in other countries the taxation is on the GGR. Another issue is the penalty, since it is not provided for in the law, which defines only the revocation of the license and not punishments according to the inappropriate acts practiced. Another issue is the permission for companies from abroad to open offices in Brazil to advise companies authorized to operate sports betting,” he explained.
At the end of the webinar, Waldir Marques said that Danilo Pereira's comments were very important, stating that he will look for him in the coming days and during the regulatory process to better understand the side of the gambler, with clear differences between amateur, compulsive and professional bettors, in order to make everything very clear at the end of the regulatory process.
Source: Exclusive Games Magazine Brasil
