Lower house of brazil's national congress progresses gambling reform bill

Encouraging industry news from Brazil this week is that the Chamber of Deputies in the National Assembly has progressed Provisional Measure 846/18, which formalises plans for the distribution of revenue raised through the countrys national lottery Loterias Caixa (Lotex).

The approval covers both land and online sports betting, setting a two-year window in which the Congress could formalise regulations for private operators to enter the market and pay tax and licensing fees on their activities.

The bill now passes to the Senate, the upper house of the Brazilian National Congress, where it could be in a race against time – the legislative session is scheduled to finish on November 28th.

Earlier this year the Senate voted down a similar bill embracing online bingo, sports betting and casino activity that had been passed by the lower house.

The author of the measure, Pará Senator Flexa Ribeiro, says that if passed by the national legislative system, the bill has the potential to recover market share currently held by unlicensed international operators accessing Brazilian punters.
He estimates that this would have a revenue value of BRL$4.3 billion (Euro 990 million).

Sen. Ribeiro recommends that the national Ministry of Finance be tasked with regulating the sector and drawing up the necessary tax, licensing and regulatory structures.

Ribeiro has proposed a hefty 80 percent RTP rate for operators, who would be permitted to keep no more than 14 percent to cover costs and to be distributed to shareholders as profit. The final 6% will be divided between a number of social and security entities.

In the online environment, the proposal is an RTP of 89 percent of wagers as winnings, with operators permitted to retain 8 percent of the total.