Following the regulation of the online sports betting market in 2023, the main issue facing the sector today is the presence of illegal companies still operating in the market, according to participants in a public hearing in the Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday (20).
According to Fernando Vieira, executive president of the Brazilian Responsible Gaming Institute, nearly half of the online betting companies operate clandestinely.
As reported by the Chamber of Deputies News Agency (Agência Câmara de Notícias) the lawmaker presented findings from a recent study, indicating that the legal market currently generates approximately R$ 38 billion in Brazil, while the estimate for the clandestine online gaming market ranges between R$ 26 billion and R$ 40 billion.
Among other problems caused by the clandestine market, such as the possibility of minors placing bets, Vieira highlighted the loss of government revenue due to illegal activities.
“What concerns us is how much the government and society lose in revenue, estimated at around R$ 10.8 billion per year, due to the inability to collect any form of tax from this illegal market,” he stated.
According to André Wainer, coordinator of Monitoring and Money Laundering at the Ministry of Finance’s Prize and Betting Secretariat, there are currently 80 companies authorized to operate in the Brazilian market. The oversight of companies in the sector only began last year, after the regulation of the 2023 law.
Since then, Wainer reported that around 17,000 sites have been blocked for operating without authorization, averaging over 1,700 pages per month. “We check the institutions that these illegal bets are using for financial transactions and notify these financial institutions,” he said.
In the opinion of Deputy Caio Vianna , who proposed the debate in the Sports Commission, the best way to combat illegal companies is through “financial suffocation.”
“I believe that the quickest and most effective way we have to curb this market is through payment methods. Just shutting down websites won’t resolve the problem, because their ability to set up sites in different locations around the globe is very rapid,” he said.
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Following the regulation of the online sports betting market in 2023, the main issue facing the sector today is the presence of illegal companies still operating in the market, according to participants in a public hearing in the Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday (20). According to Fernando Vieira, executive president of the Brazilian Responsible Gaming…
The post Deputies discuss ways to combat illegal online gambling in Brazil appeared first on G3 Newswire.