Legislation

Brazil – SECAP undersecretary says Brazil’s sports betting laws will be complete by the summer

By Phil - 12 January 2021

Brazilian legislator are aiming to have the nation’s sports betting laws in place by July with a launch date of 2022, according to Waldir Eustáquio Marques Jr., the undersecretary of SECAP, the Economic Ministry’s Secretariat of Evaluation, Planning, Energy and Lottery.

He said the regulation ‘must come out in July of this year.’

“Sports betting has some peculiarities, different from traditional lotteries, and includes much stronger technology requirements, which must be studied quite a bit, such as the integrity of the sport, the prevention of money laundering, the prevention of pathologies among vulnerable players,” he added. “The administration technicians have studied this a lot, participated in various events, and have been trained to regulate this activity without taking a step forward and another step back.”

He said the government came close to piecing together its legislation until the disagreement over the number of licenses to be issued.

“We were very close,” he said. “The secretariat was working hard on the authorisation. But we saw some points that could be detrimental. So we had to slow down and review the model, to be able to proceed safely.”

The government believes that licence fees alone would generate between US$730m and $1.8bn.