Brazil backs away from online sports betting monopoly plans

Brazil appears to be backing away from its plan/threat to restrict online sports betting to a government-controlled monopoly.

Last Thursday, Brazilian Senator Benedito de Lira (pictured) filed an amended version of PLS 186/2014, the Senate’s version of plans to radically overhaul the country’s gambling market by authorizing everything from brick-and-mortar casinos to unspecified forms of online gambling.

Previous versions of the Senate bill contained only vague references to ‘electronic betting’ while President Michel Temer raised eyebrows a year ago by suggesting he favored restricting online activity to a sports betting monopoly that would be run by national lottery operator Caixa Econômica Federal.

The amended Senate bill still leaves it up to the federal government to oversee online gambling activity, the scope of which has been fleshed out to include “sports and non-sports betting games” as well as “online casino games.” The bill calls for a reasonable 15% tax on online gambling revenue, while land-based operators would pay 10%.