Currently, the Brazilian government suffers from a lack of resources for public policies in several areas such as: health, education, security and social assistance. And to help with this, there is a huge source of resources that is not used: sports betting.
In 2018, still under Michel Temer, sports betting was legalized through Law 13,756. That same year, the US Supreme Court, in a move involving the State of New Jersey, declared unconstitutional a federal restriction that did not allow gambling in almost all US states.
In this way, both countries recognized, by different means, the legality of sports betting.
However, the similarity between the countries is just that, since while in the United States the state governments have already started to move to achieve the regulation of betting, in Brazil, the Federal Government, which initially had a period of two years to do so , did not take any measures to speed up the process.
In this way, the national government allowed the deadline to elapse and entered an extension of two more years that the law allowed it to implement the regulation.
What is most worrying at the moment is the fact that we are approaching the end of this extension and we do not have any clear signal from the Brazilian government whether or not regulatory norms will be issued.
Meanwhile, the United States has already finalized all aspects of regulation in several regions, and a previously non-existent market has quickly become a major market for the betting industry. After four years of the legalization of sports betting, it is already possible to verify a value of more than US$ 125 billion in sports betting.
The opening of the sports betting market can generate 3 types of revenue sources for Brazil:
- 1st: A resulting from the purchase of licenses/authorizations by operators;
- 2nd: With the taxes paid by the operators;
- 3rd: Indirect gains from the circulation of capital generated in the operation with direct and indirect jobs that are created.
In the current context, in which Brazil allows betting companies to operate in the national territory with their headquarters located abroad, the Brazilian State no longer collects:
- 1st: the money for granting licenses/authorizations;
- 2nd: taxes;
- 3rd: the indirect revenues that the resources generated in the operation can generate.
In short, of the three major sources of revenue that are offered by sports betting, Brazil does not benefit from any of them.
In addition, by not efficiently regulating sports betting, several companies without commitment to the final consumer end up operating in Brazil, generally discrediting the entire sector.
Now is the time to wait for the country to make the right decisions and be sure to take advantage of all the benefits that the sport can provide to the most diverse regions of Brazil.
