The majority of the Brazilian population supports the taxation of sports betting
Photo: Joédson Alves/Agência Brasil

The majority of the Brazilian population is in favor of taxation of online sports betting. According to a survey promoted by Paraná Pesquisas, announced this Wednesday, 22, 55.2% of those interviewed are in favor, while 27.9% are against and 16.9% do not know or prefer not to give an opinion.

In early March, the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, stated that the federal government plans to tax the practice of sports betting in order to compensate for the drop in revenue with the increase in the Income Tax exemption.

Of the 2010 people included in the survey, 85.5% reported that they had never gambled online, while 14.5% had. The survey also asked whether respondents think there is some form of match-fixing taking place at sporting events. Thus, 63.9% answered that yes, there is some kind of manipulation and 36.1% do not believe in the possibility.

The data collection process was carried out through personal interviews, with Brazilians aged 16 or over, in 26 states and the Federal District and in 154 municipalities between March 15th and 18th of this year, being audited simultaneously with the least 20% of the interviews. The survey achieves a 95% confidence level for an estimated margin of error of 2.2 percentage points for the overall results.

Proposed regulation and taxation of sports betting should be released in the coming days

Haddad’s intention is to announce the regulation and taxation measure for the sector after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s trip to China at the end of March. In addition, the values ​​to be required from sports betting companies that intend to operate in Brazil are still being evaluated by the federal government.

A law approved by then President Michel Temer in 2018 released the practice of sports betting in the country, however, it established the need for future regulation of this sector, which was not finalized. Thus, the government is unable to tax companies, but the expectation is that this situation will be changed soon.