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Brazil – New lottery proposed for city of Belo Horizonte

By - 4 May 2023

The city of Belo Horizonte has approved the proposal for the creation of a municipal lottery. The measure was approved by the Belo Horizonte City Council which gave the go ahead in the first round of discussions for the proposal to create the new lottery which will be called BHLot if approved. The text was approved by 35 votes to 4 in the first stage of the vote.

According to the author of the proposal Juliano Lopes BHLot would follow in the footsteps of the recently launched Loteria Mineira. Loteria Mineira began planning the introduction of new types of games, including instant lotteries and sports betting in the state of Minas Gerais after new rules were approved by Governor Romeu Zema in May 2021. The rules allowed for the Loteria Mineira (LEMG) to operate new lottery products including passive lottery games, a numerical lottery, sports betting and instants.

The councillor was unsure as how much the new lottery would raise for the city coffers but estimated that it could generate around $R5m a year.

The move follows in the wake of similar decisions made by city councils and regional governments throughout Brazil as they seek to offer their own lotteries and in some cases launch tenders for sports betting as well. Only recently the Rio de Janeiro lottery authority (Loterj) published the requirements for companies interested in competing for the licence to run and develop fixed-odds online and land based sports betting.

The expansion of local lotteries and sports betting was made possible in September 2020 when the Supreme Court of Brazil ruled that the federal government’s lottery monopoly was unconstitutional. The ruling came after the state of Rio de Janeiro took the federal government to the Supreme Court of Brazil when the federal government directed the state to shut its lottery operations after the lottery began to offer new games.

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