Legislation
Brazil – Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies to discuss online gambling regs
By Phil - 28 May 2019
The Chamber of Deputies of Brazil is discussing the regulation of online gambling with talks focusing on protecting consumers and raising revenue for the state.
On May 22, the Sports Commission in the House of Representatives held a public hearing at the request of Congressman Evandro Roman to discuss the regulation of the industry. The hearing was also attended by entrepreneurs from the sector, as well as representatives from both national and international bodies.
Mr. Roman defended regulating online gambling in order to help protect consumers, generate tax revenue and maintain the integrity of sports. The lawmaker emphasised that new regulations should cover identity verification and age checks, online sports betting and include new measures against money laundering.
Late last year the National Congress of Brazil approved new gaming legislation that will allow for both online and land based sports betting. The bill, Provisional Measure 846/18, deals mainly with how lottery funds are distributed giving more priority to National Security. A much larger proportion of resources operated by Brazil’s largest state owned bank and lottery operator –the Caixa Econômica Federal (CAIXA) will be earmarked for public security while the bill seeks to raise additional income for the government by green lighting sports betting and gives the Ministry of Finance initially just two years to get sports betting up and running. However this can be extended for another two years.
Pedro Trengrouse a lawyer specialising in sports law and Vice President of the Special Law Commission of Sport, Lotteries and Entertainment for the Brazilian Bar Association (OAB) said that for now the Ministry of Economy is focused mainly on social welfare reform. However sports betting legislation is already quite advanced he told Sputnik Brazil. Trengrouse also said that Brazil’s failure to regulate the industry before has partly been due to the number of crises that the country has faced in recent years but said that “the Ministry is still aiming for the regulation of sports betting this year.”
Image By Wilson Dias/Agência Brasil – http://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/politica/foto/2015-09/eduardo-cunha-preside-sessao-contra-guerra-fiscal?id=976088, CC BY 3.0 br, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46480063
