Hopes high for Brazil legalisation

Brazilian media reports this week have triggered hopes for online gambling legalisation in the vast South American nation, with the expectation that within the next week the national House will see a new gaming reform bill (PL442/1991) featuring the genre, although it may take some time to pass.

A Senate committee in April passed legislation PLS 186/2014 that would authorise a general land gambling expansion which includes online gambling, and this is currently awaiting further debate and possibly a vote on the Senate floor.

Eilers Research, an independent industry monitor, predicted in an April 2016 report that: “This year’s expansion proposal has the best odds of passing in over a decade due to the current state of the Brazilian economy and desperate need for additional tax revenue combined with growing political support.”

A spokesman for BetConsult – a local consultant to the Brazilian industry – is also optimistic, and says the demand for gambling in Brazil is “huge”.

He estimated legal betting is already a 14.2 billion real ($4.2 billion) business, primarily from state lotteries, while illegal gambling totals close to 20 billion reais per year, with an estimated 200,000 Brazilians gambling abroad every month.

Related and similar