Supplier News
Brazil – Cirsa looks to invest in Brazilian market
By Phil - 21 October 2015
Spanish gaming company Cirsa could be looking to Brazil now that gaming is once again the focus of debate in the Brazilian congress.
Managing Director of the company in Brazil, Miguel Santesteban Zorrilla told local press that if gaming is not legalised by the end of this year then the company would be ready to take advantage of the market opening up next year. “Everything will depend on the law that is passed,” he said.
While the exact figures for Cirsa’s investment plan in Brazil were not revealed the executive said that he expected most of the investment would be in big cities with a lot of investment in the area aimed at reviving old historical casinos in Brazil. The state of Minas Gerais would naturally stand out due to the fact that it has a long history associated with gaming, he said.
Mr. Zorrilla said that around 70 per cent of the public in casinos in Paraguay and in Dubai are Brazilian. “There are Brazilians everywhere,” he said. “There are also direct flights from Brazil to Las Vegas. All these people are not going to stop playing, or play any more if it is legalised. Brazil has the opportunity for all the money which people spend on casinos outside to now stay in Brazil,” he said.
He also criticised the current ban on gambling in Brazil, because he said it does not prevent illegal gambling and pointed out that players can currently play via offshore betting sites. Legalising gaming would not, he said greatly increase gaming addiction as the new law would not be about primarily promoting gaming in Brazil but rather legalising what already exists.
Illegal gaming remains a huge issue in Brazil. According to some estimates illegal gaming could be worth almost double of the R$ 11.1bn generated by legal gaming which is composed of R$ 10.4bn generated by Federal lotteries, R$400m generated by the state lotteries and R$300m by horse racing.
Casinos were first banned in 1946 by President Eurico Gaspar Dutra. Before the ban Brazilian casinos were some of the most famous in the world and generated a significant proportion of government finances. However as reported last month Brazil could legalise gambling in order to raise money and help weather the recession.
Shortfall in taxes generated by Brazil’s struggling economy has prompted the government of Dilma Rousseff to cut budgets and raise taxes. Rousseff and several cabinet ministers met with party leaders from the alliance last month to discuss the issue to see if the new proposals would have their approval, according to statements made later by a number of lawmakers to local media. If the government finally green lights gaming it would be one of the most momentous moments in Latin American gaming history and could open up a huge and as yet largely untapped market.
