Brazil approves Sports Betting legislation
Lower and Upper House followed one another to pass MP 846/2018
Following an express and public request from President-elect Jair Bolsonaro, the Plenary of the House of Representatives (Deputados) approved late on Monday 20th the provisional measure MP 846, which contains new regulations for the distribution of money collected from operating lotteries, amongst other sectors. At the same time it created a new fixed-odds lottery, aimed at putting together a framework for sports betting operations via Internet. Soon afterwards MP 846 was sent to the Senate for debate, to take place before November 28th.
Nonetheless, the Senate plenary took the item as a matter of urgency and, not letting a day go by, approved yesterday, Wednesday 21st, MP 846/2018. This is due to allocate part of the resources collected from sports betting and federal Lotteries to finance the National Fund of Public Security (FNSP), which was one of the pillars of the Bolsonaro electoral campaign. The provisional proposal also reformulates the financing of several sectors from lottery receipts, such as sport and culture.
The bill followed several corrections over the course of several months. When the new version of MP 841/2018 emerged, based on collaboration by the Ministries of Culture and Sport as well as pressure from lobbying entities, all parties moved to support the amended MP. A previous version of the MP reduced income to the sport and culture sectors and increased funds to FNSP
According to the Senate President, Eunício Oliveira, the text approved by the Senate plenary was supported by the current Minister of Public Security, Raúl Jungmann, and the future Minister of Justice (who will also be responsible for the security area), Judge Sérgio Moro.
The amended MP had slight changes in its passage through the National Congress and the new text has now been forwarded for enactment by the office of the Brazilian presidency.
Gambling in Brazil
During the MP 846/18 debate in the Lower House plenary, Representative Bacelar expressed his support for full gambling legalization in the country. He said: “If we legalize gambling in Brazil, we will have money for public security and for several other areas. This will generate 500,000 jobs in the country and will give culture and leisure some breathing space. Brazilian people continue to gamble (on illegal gambling operations) and we cannot stop it.”
Both legislative chambers have been struggling to approve casino and gambling legislation in Brazil for the last 4 years. It is expected that with the approval of sports betting there will be new impetus to take issue once more so that the mega gambling potential of Brazil’s industry opens up once and for all.
