Legislation
Brazil – Chamber of Deputies President announces inquiry into sports betting
By James - 1 May 2023
The President of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira has announced that he will set up a parliamentary commission of inquiry into sports betting and match fixing.
The proposal initially came from Deputy Felipe Carreras who was given Lira’s endorsement to start collecting the necessary signatures in March. The call for an inquiry came after a match fixing scandal in second division football was unearthed in February.
A number of football games are being investigated due to the alleged involvement of a criminal group specializing in match-fixing. The case is being investigated by the Public Ministry of Goiás in an operation dubbed “Operation Maximum Penalty.” The investigation widened last month when it was revealed that at least six games in Brazil’s first division football league had been caught up in the investigation.
Deputy Carreras has been a long time supporter of change and has gone on record several times arguing for reform. In 2021 he served as rapporteur of the drafting of Bill PL 442 /91. The bill is an amalgamation of as many as twenty other gambling related projects all of which have been discussed since 1999. The text authorizes the operation of casinos, bingo halls, sports betting, online gambling, skill games as well as street lottery “the animal game.”
