Brazilian senate mulls anti-online gambling proposal

In what seems to be a cart-before-the-horse move, Brazilian Senators Crio Nogueira and Roberto Requião have introduced bill PLS 213/2017 to the Senate Committee for Economic Affairs seeking to ban the use of credit cards and other financial instruments in transactions with online gambling operators.

The move is curious, bearing in mind that Brazilian lawmakers have been wrestling for months with national gambling reforms that include the possible legalisation of online gambling, arguing over two proposals which as a result have become bogged down in the legislature.

A clearly frustrated Senator Nogueira supports the gambling liberalisation project, but says that until the appropriate laws are passed it is necessary to close “legislative loopholes” that help Brazilian punters to spend the estimated equivalent of $951 million gambling online.

Nogueira’s proposal is that the nation’s central bank should be tasked with drawing up and implementing appropriate regulations and control measures to give his bill teeth, using as a possible template the restrictive measures adopted by other countries, such as the USA, France and Australia

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