On the night of this Thursday, December 21st, the final draft was approved, with the definitive wording of Bill 3,626/2023 in the plenary of the Chamber of Deputies, which defines the regulation of sports betting in Brazil.
The final text will now be forwarded to the President of the Republic and may be approved in full or with vetoes within 15 days.
The bill was presented on July 25th by the Federal Government and voted with several changes by the Chamber of Deputies on September 13th.
After the process in the Chamber, the project was discussed and voted on December 12th in the Senate, which added 42 new changes.
The text then returned to the Chamber of Deputies, where most of the amendments presented by the Senate were approved, resulting in the current version.
Below are the main aspects of the proposed new rules, based on the MYLAW team‘s independent compilation of the final sports betting regulations.
The official and definitive wording is still pending editing and delivery by the Board of the Chamber of Deputies. Therefore, the prepared compilation is in Portuguese and freely translated into English.
Details of sports betting regulations
The final text defines “real sports-themed event” as an event, competition or act that includes sports, tournaments, games or tests with human, individual or collective interaction (but excluding those that only involve the participation of children under 18 years of age), the result of which is unknown at the time of the bet and which are promoted or organized:
(i) in accordance with the rules established by the national sports administration body, as provided for in Law No. 14,597/23 – General Sports Law, or its affiliated organizations; or (ii) by sports administration organizations based outside the country.
Therefore, as eSports remain unregulated in Brazil and the General Sports Law of 2023 does not explicitly include the sport in its scope, it remains uncertain whether betting on eSports will be allowed.
However, the proposal introduces two new concepts:
(i) Online gambling: electronic channel that allows virtual betting on a game whose outcome is determined by the result of a random future event, based on a random generator of numbers, symbols, figures or objects defined in the system of rules;
(ii) Online virtual game: event, competition or act of online gaming whose result is unknown at the time of betting.
As such, the AQF may have as its object (i) real sports-themed events; (ii) virtual online gaming events or (iii) other events, real or virtual, defined in regulation by the Ministry of Finance.
