Brazil’s Senate plenary to delay final voting on regulation until December

Originally scheduled to vote for today (29 November), the Senate plenary has agreed to delay the vote until an unconfirmed date in December.

This follows the bill being presented by Senator Angelo Coronel, a key proponent for legalisation in Brazil.

The newly proposed amendments total more than 100, which will now be considered. These include a proposed taxation of fantasy sports on the same level as the 12% for sports betting and online casino, as well as the role of the health sector in the exclusion process.

Due to the requested amends, and there being a lack of of quorum to vote, the vote will now be delayed.

The president of the Brazilian Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco, will now need to decide the next voting date, although this is expected to be in December.

Once the bill is approved, it will need to be returned to the Chamber of Deputies for review. If the amendments are approved, it will then be passed to the office of the president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, to sign.

Bill 3,626/23 – the details

Today’s news follows approval from the Economic Affairs Committee (CAE), on 21 November.

As well as the surprise inclusion of online casino – which was added in September – taxation is now much more favourable at 12% than when the bill was originally introduced.

This is a significant reduction from the original 18% outlined in Provisional Measure (PM) 1,182.

Alongside reducing tax on gross gaming revenue (GGR), the taxation on bettors is reduced from 30% to 15%.

The licence fee is set at R$30m (£4.8m/€5.6m). Licence terms will run for a total of five years.

Sports betting and casino taxation

Assuming the current bill is approved, 36% of the tax will be directed to sports and 28% will go to tourism. Public safety initiatives will be given 14% and 10% each will go to education and social security.

The value of inspection fees is also expected to be changed. It will no longer be calculated based on the amount of premium paid. Rather, it will be based on lower levels of GGR.

Budding operators must also receive approval from the ministry of finance in order to operate in Brazil.

To qualify for a licence, operators must have a Brazilian partner that holds a minimum of 20% of the company’s capital in the country. They also must have the appropriate cybersecurity systems in place.

The bill also outlines that operators will have to implement identification processes. It stipulates facial recognition technology as a potential method.

Unlicensed operators will not be allowed to advertise in Brazil. In addition, B2B partners will be prohibited from providing technology to unlicensed B2C companies. Bonuses will also be banned.

How did we get here?  

As we’ve covered extensively on iGB, Brazil’s legalised sports betting and casino story has been a long and winding one.

The final stretch of the journey kicked off in May when Brazil’s government announced PM 1,182 for sports betting.

The PM was given the all-clear by Da Silva. The president subsequently signed it into law in July.

Initially, the PM was not well received. The main points of contention were around the 18% tax rate, advertising restrictions and ambiguous regulation around payments.

Following that, Bill 3,626/2023 was introduced – which made amendments to PM 1,182.

The biggest change was the addition of online casino. In September, this was approved by the Chamber of Deputies, with the tax rate still at 18%.