The gaming industry is experiencing a unique moment: several countries, from all continents, are reviewing their policies and regulatory frameworks for the sector.
The reasons for the new balance are many, not necessarily coordinated, but opportunely congruent: stagnation in the European gaming market, emergence of liberal political groups, changes in the behavior of the population, the Internet, economic crises, fiscal revision, damage containment policies, combat money laundering, regulatory arbitrage, potential for economic development. Recently, the impacts of the new coronavirus, the fall in tourism and the halted digitalization of businesses, which also affected lotteries, bookmakers, casinos, bingo, and hospitality, are included.
The United States has gone through a complex tangle of decisions and laws involving legal disputes at the Supreme Court over state and congressional competencies to enable, in 2018, state sports betting regulations. States, operators, and sports leagues are already organizing themselves to share the pie and establish mechanisms of integrity.
Normative updates since 2015 have formalized online gambling and made Colombia one of the most flexible markets for Internet betting in Latin America. In the United Kingdom, the Betting Act 2014 has forced remote operators to purchase licenses in the country and pay taxes locally to offer services to British customers. In Germany, a federal law comes into force in 2021, legalizing casinos, sports betting, regulating advertising and fighting the illegal market.
In November, a Royal Decree of the Council of Ministers started to regulate, for the first time, the advertising of the sector of online betting and games of chance in Spain, with a focus on restricting campaigns on the internet and sports leagues.
In 2009, Russia created four special zones for casino operation, and recently announced that the fifth, the “Gold Coast” in Crimea, will be operational in two years. In 2019, the government ratified rules for online gaming through interactive betting.
The Legal Commission of India, the governing body for debating legislative reforms, issued an impactful (and controversial) report in 2018 recommending that effective regulation would remain the only viable option to combat the illegal market, given the impossibility of a total ban on gambling.
South Africa passed its general law in 2004 and has been under pressure to legalize online casinos. The regulatory authority reaffirmed during the pandemic that sports betting is still the only modality authorized to operate via the Internet.
The New Zealand advertising self-regulatory council has issued new industry rules to protect vulnerable children and audiences. Amid global disputes, the new 2019 code of conduct stated that lootboxes are not considered games of chance for advertising purposes.
There are several references that we cannot miss in the formulation of public policies and regulation of the sector in Brazil.
Let us be explicit: there is no legal game without a corresponding bureaucratic organization.
Ideally, under Brazilian law, we would have a special autarchy that would correspond to what is seen in commissions and authorities around the world: in Las Vegas (Nevada Gaming Control Board), in the territories of native peoples of the United States (National Indian Gaming Commission) , in Mohawk territory in Canada (Kahnawake Gaming Commission), the Bahamas (Gaming Board for the Bahamas), the Netherlands (Netherlands Gaming Authority), Malta (Malta Gaming Authority), the United Kingdom (Gambling Commission), South Africa (National Gaming Board), South Korea (National Gambling Control Commission), Macau (Macau Gaming Inspeciton and Coordination Bureau).
The political-administrative impasse of implementing a proportional structure in the federal government has already been narrated in another text in this column (“Place your bets again”).
In the current configuration, there are still no structures in the Brazilian direct or indirect administration that fully exercise the functions of central regulator, especially for emerging modalities. For vocation, experience and talent, the Secretariat for Prizes and Drwas of the Secretariat for Evaluation, Planning, Energy and Lottery (SECAP) of the Ministry of Economy is the one who comes closest to the federal level.
Draft Decrees of 2019 and 2020 that would regulate sports betting in the country, due to Law No. 13,756 / 2018, provided for the increase in the structure of SECAP, increase of personnel and rearrangement in the routines of the specialized team in the Ministry of Economy (or agency that succeed). This increase is essential to make the homologation, standardization, supervision, and inspection obligations of the modality feasible, typical functions of a regulator.
In fact, the strengthening and autonomy of a regulator is indispensable for the refinement of institutional dialogue on all types of traditional and emerging games (casinos, bingos, jogo do bicho, lotteries, eSports, sweepstakes) with players, investors, control bodies and international agents.
Even with a limited structure, the Congress and the technical areas of the Federal Executive have shown important signs that they rely on the opinion of experts, the market, and foreign regulators on how to implement an appropriate regulatory framework for the country.
In 2021, the government has the opportunity to materialize its reading of the Brazilian and international scene through the regulation of sports betting and the management of the new arrangement of the state lottery market. Diligent action and alignment with contemporary sectoral practices would reduce uncertainties about whether the Brazilian market is the lode enunciated worldwide.
Interested parties follow the game attentive, active, and updated.
Sérgio Garcia Alves
Master in Law & Technology from the University of California, Berkeley. Master in Regulation from the University of Brasília. Partner at Abdala Advogados
