The government of the Workers’ Party (PT), led by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is developing measures to regularize the sports betting market. The same sources say that the Ministry of Finance is currently working on the text of the regulation, which will be forwarded shortly to the Ministry of Sport.
It is expected that the government’s technical team will complete the draft of the text and send it to the parliamentary advisory, in order to carry out political adjustments that guarantee support for the measures in Congress. The government package includes a provisional measure that aims to regulate the operation of these betting sites.
As of the end of 2018, betting has been authorized through the sanction of a specific law. However, a regulation for its functioning has not yet been established. This is one of the reasons why many betting companies operate from abroad, often in tax havens.
The Lula government’s decision comes at a time when there are ongoing investigations into the possible participation of Serie B players in the Brazilian Football Championship in a match-fixing scheme to ensure winning bets.
In the scheme under investigation, which involves a player who played for Vila Nova (GO), manipulation occurred through penalties committed by the athletes. This is due to the fact that betting has become more and more detailed, involving statistics such as penalties, corners and free kicks.
Regulation is the best way to guarantee the security of the Brazilian sports betting market
The regulation of the passed sports betting law needs to be streamlined so that the market can be launched and provide fair competition between licensed operators, as well as allow consumers to gamble on locally supervised sites.
One of the most positive aspects of this legislation is the security it will provide. For users, this is a crucial factor, as regulation attracts many renowned licensees to supply the market, and players are directed to only use these sites.
Analyzing other cases in Europe and Latin America, countries with well-established regulation experience a high rate of channeling, which indicates that the vast majority of consumers, more than 85%, prefer to play on legal sites rather than illegal sites.
