Since 2018, the sports betting sector has become a powerful source of income for national football clubs. Waiting for the regulation to operate in the country, these brands have headquarters abroad, but they already move billions of national bettors.
Estimates are that the amounts these companies will reach 12 billion reais this year, according to Magno José, president of the Instituto Brasileiro Jogo Legal. The situation with bookmakers is gray, but it’s not exactly illegal. In 2018, Michel Temer’s government legalized the segment in the country, determining a period of four years for regulation by the Ministry of Finance.
That period ended in December of last year and, as regulation has not been formalized, bookmakers currently operate in regulatory limbo. However, the collection capacity of this practice was not ignored by the new government.
The Ministry of Finance estimates to raise between BRL 2 billion and BRL 6 billion with taxes on the sports betting sector
The Ministry of Finance still does not have official figures on the movement of these companies, however, Minister Fernando Haddad has already said that he wants to use the taxation of games to compensate for the loss of revenue generated by the revision of the Income Tax table, which will have an increase in exemption range from this year.
The federal government calculates to collect between R$ 2 billion and R$ 6 billion per year with the collection of taxes on the sports betting sector.
“The bookmaker sector is important in the global economy and operates today in the country in a gray area, despite already sponsoring Brazilian football clubs. This stops moving the economy, generating jobs, and the consumer does not have the legal security of be protected by rules,” says Danielle Maiolini Mendes, a lawyer specializing in sports law at CSMV Advogados to the website O Dia.
It is worth mentioning that the bookmakers that are in Brazil today without the need to pay taxes are also anxiously awaiting market regulation, even if it means financial loss.
“The regulation will certainly contribute to the even greater development of the market, which has great growth potential in Brazil in the coming years. Currently, the government does not collect taxes, and this ends up favoring the parallel market”, says Alexandre Fonseca, country manager of Betano in Brazil.
