The vote on the bill to double the gambling tax rate in Brazil has been postponed once again, with no date yet set for its return.
Following the failure of a provisional measure to increase the tax rate from 12% to 18%, new proposals were made in October to hike the current rate on GGR to 24%.
An initial vote for the proposal was postponed earlier this month, prior to Tuesday’s meeting of the Economic Affairs Committee (CAE) also being pushed back.
Reportedly, Chamber of Deputies president Hugo Motta believed the bill did not have the required support to pass. He informed senate chief Davi Alcolumbre of his intention to prevent the bill from going to a vote. This ultimately led to CAE president Renan Calheiros cancelling the meeting.
It is expected that negotiations over what the bill includes will continue with a vote potentially scheduled for next week.
The bill also contains a higher social contribution on net profit for fintechs and other financial institutions.
However it could be a long process, with 172 amendments to PL 5,473/2025 having already been presented in the CAE.
If the bill is approved, it will head straight to the Chamber of Deputies unless there is an appeal for it to be voted upon in the Senate plenary.
Brazil government determined to hike gambling tax
With a general election coming up next year, the government, led by President Lula, seems set on increasing gambling taxes to meet its fiscal targets.
The government suffered a humiliating defeat when its provisional measure to raise the gambling tax by 50% failed.
Brazilian iGaming expert Elvis Lourenço has told iGB this has led todesperate continued attempts to raise the tax rate.
“That’s the main reason that they struck back so fast, because it was embarrassing for them,” Lourenço, managing partner of EX7 Partners, told iGB in October.
“This becomes an election agenda, because this is good for the audience and the public to get votes because we are a conservative country in some ways. So, to put this on their agenda, ‘we increase the taxes of the billionaires, of the gambling world’, it is good for the speech of the actual government.”
Lourenço believes doubling the current tax rate would be an “insane” move that could risk a collapse of the regulated market, which only launched on 1 January this year.
The decision to cancel the meeting was reportedly made after Chamber of Deputies president Hugo Motta said the proposal wouldn’t secure the required support.