Answer ... The coming months should be promising for gaming in Brazil.
Regulations governing fixed-odds sports betting are likely to be released by the executive branch during the first half of 2023. Rumours relating to the regulatory framework suggest that an accreditation model is about to be adopted, without a previously defined and determined number of licences and with the general features of a regulatory sandbox – a trend inaugurated by the Brazilian financial system in specific industries (eg, banking, securities and insurance) that could be of great use to the emerging gambling industry in the country.
At the state level, the market is moving quickly. Most of the 26 states and the Federal District are trying to create or reactivate their lottery operations, albeit without any formal guidance from the Ministry of Economy on the operation of state lotteries. Several opportunities for operators in the states will arise during the year, starting with the public tender already in place – albeit temporarily suspended – in Brazil’s biggest market, São Paulo.
On the legislative front, a new draft Bill 442/1991 was approved by the Chamber of Deputies, after discussions held by the Working Group of the Gambling Regulatory Framework. It focuses on casinos, bingo, video bingo, games of chance, horse-racing betting and online gaming, leaving fixed-odds sports betting regulation to be covered by the existing Law 13,756/2018. Other betting modalities besides horse racing, such as pari-mutuel and direct bets, remain outside the scope of the draft and thus undefined. After the final vote at the chamber, the bill was sent to the Senate in March 2022, where it was renumbered as Bill of Law 2,234/2022.
As the gambling legislation in Brazil is currently piecemeal, the renumbered bill of law seeks to establish a unified regulatory regime by introducing, among other things:
- basic terminologies and general principles that should apply across the whole industry (except for the state-run lotteries, which are outside the scope of the draft); and
- systems that should facilitate better governance and proper oversight of gambling activities.
Although horse racing entities are already regulated by specific provisions, their inclusion in the draft is more in relation to the other gambling modalities that can now be run at their locations (eg, bingo and casinos) than an attempt to modify any aspect of the existing legislation (Law 7,291/1984 and Decree 96,993/1998), or the requirements or regulatory activities developed by the specific regulator (the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply).
Finally, in the judicial domain, on 7 April 2022 the Brazilian Supreme Court was scheduled to rule on Extraordinary Appeal 966,177 and confirm whether the gambling ban set forth by Article 50 of the Misdemeanour Criminal Act is constitutional. The judgment session has been postponed indefinitely; but depending on how the court rules, all gaming activities – from bingo to casinos, both land-based and online – could become legal and unregulated across the whole country.