Brazil Edges Closer to Legal Sports Betting as Senate Green-Lights Bill MP 846

Fresh news from Brazil states that the country’s Senate has given the official nudge forward to bill MP 846 which brings legal sports betting one step closer.

With the successful voting session over and done with, the remaining step is for the bill to be signed by recently elected, controversial far-right President, Jair Bolsonaro.

Progress and Order

The regulation of sports betting has been a hot topic in Brazil since late last year…

…when National Congress upper house approved the Provisional Measure 846/18, which is a legislation that permitted land-based and online betting.

Under the minutiae of the said act, the revenue tax collected by the country’s national lottery would be distributed to various social programs.

Head of Business Development at Clever Advertising Group, Marcos Oliveira, comments on the Brazil Senate’s favorable decision:

“s are already starting to build SEO ranking websites and position themselves as the first acquisition option to new regulated operators. Like most European countries, Brazil’s main sport is football and it has an enormous fan base of lower divisions making Brazil one of the biggest markets, since content is almost unlimited.”

s’ Responsibility

Oliveira went on to remark that marketing has existed in Brazil for a long time and it reaped great success. He says he expects that established s will educate players to spend their money only with legal operators…

…and help block any advertising from non-licensed operators. “If all s do their jobs correctly, everyone can help drive the players to trustworthy operators where the player is always protected by local law.”

Flying Down to Rio

The entire gambling landscape is taking a major turn in Brazil. In February, lawmaker, Paulo Azi, introduced a bill that seeks to authorize every state in this country to open at least one casino resort!

The amount of allowed resorts would depend on the state’s population, though. States with 15-25 million residents would be permitted to have two casino resorts.

The news of possible major resorts being built in Brazil spread like wildfire…

…and soon enough, major US operators have expressed interest in coming to Brazilian market – among them is Las Vegas Sands that is already outlining plans for a property in Rio de Janeiro.

Upon breaking out of this piece of information, the domestic hotel sector has reacted quickly, asking for officials to reconsider the proposed construction of foreign operators’ casino, and delegate this duty to established hotel chains instead!

Their reasoning stems from the fact that they’re concerned over the future market and that hotels are, as president of Brazilian Association of Resorts, Alberto Cestrone, puts it, “a natural product to absorb such a venture, because they do not need big investments and have good structure and gastronomy needed to make it work.”

It still remains to be seen, however whether President Bolsonaro will sign the finished sports betting bill. He was a vocal opponent of gambling activities during his pre-election rallies.

Source:

“Brazil Closes on Legal Sports Betting after MP 846 Approval”, Niji Narayan, europeangaming.eu, April 17, 2019