Online sports betting legalized in Brazil

In a significant development in South America, the continent’s largest country Brazil has passed a bill to legalize sports betting in the country. President of Brazil Michel Temer passed Bill MP 846/2018  to effect income redistribution from federal lotteries and legalize online sports betting.

The new bill will offer directions on how to divide the revenues from lotteries among the Culture, Sports and Security portfolios.

It should be noted that the bill observes a two-year term for the Ministry of Finance to regulate the conditions needed for the exploitation of online sports betting through licenses, and estimates that the annual collection reaches USD 255M for Public Safety, USD 161M for Sports and USD 113M for Culture.

For several analysts, the approval of this law represents a great victory for the sector and a possible first step for the regulation of all types of games of chance. Currently, two projects are waiting to be analyzed by Congress; although the new authorities headed by the elect president Jair Bolsonaro do not seem to be particularly predisposed to a wider opening of the game in the country.