Interactive
Brazil – Government to create new gambling board
By James - 18 January 2024
The government is in the process of creating a National Gaming and Betting Secretariat (Secretaría de Apostas Esportivas). According to local press the secretariat will be operational by the end of January and will be responsible for tax inspection and the prevention of illicit activities, such as money laundering. The team will be made up of public servants moved to the secretariat from other government departments as well as professionals recruited from the private sector.
One possible candidate for the head of the secretariat has been identified as José Francisco Manssur who has played a crucial role in developing Brazil’s online gambling law and is part of the Ministry of Finance.
In addition, the Ministry of Sports is also moving ahead with plans to hire 12 employees dedicated to combating match manipulation and it will also oversee the transfer of revenue generated by the newly regulated industry to sports entities. The Ministry of Sport will have to work in partnership with the treasury to prevent match fixing. It will also receiving part of revenue from betting which it will pass on to sporting institutions in Brazil.
According to newspaper Metrópoles, the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, negotiated with the Ministry of Management and Innovation in Public Services (MGI) and managed to obtain 38 positions for the National Sports Betting Secretariat. According to the newspaper, the idea was for the number to be higher – over 65 positions.
In June last year Members of the Ministry of Management and Innovation in Public Services (MGI) met with the Ministry of Finance to create the new secretariat in charge of the funds collected from online betting. Finance Minister Fernando Haddad needed the approval for certain key roles in the department that will be responsible for handling the income generated by sports betting once regulated.
The government is also evaluating the creation of an integrity agency to monitor betting and lotteries. Meanwhile the operational monitoring system is currently in the testing phase and that too will be managed by the Ministry of Finance. Earlier this month The Federal Data Processing Service (Serpro) along with the Ministry of Finance presented the platform developed by the government for the integration of information processed by online operators.
