On New Year’s Day Brazil’s regulated online gambling market finally opened its virtual doors to the Brazilian public. Online gambling’s official launch comes after years of debate and makes the 213,000,000 people of the world’s potential customers of worldwide gambling operators.
As of January 1, Brazil had 14 fully licensed operators whose sites were ready to begin receiving players. Another 52 operators are still working under provisional licenses and will need to make some corrections before they can officially launch. Operators who are still operating under provisional licenses paid the same $30 million BRL ($4.8 million USD) application fee as the operators who are ready to launch, and will have opportunities to extend those licenses in 30-day increments.
The launch of regulated online gambling in Brazil has been anything but easy, as its seven-year legislative journey indicates. Nearly every phase of the process has seen massive delays and operators working under provisional licenses complain that those delays are still happening as they work to verify systems.
Brazilian gaming is overseen by the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA) whose chief, Regis Dudena is optimistic about keeping the market in check. “The country is taking a fundamental step towards facing the potential problems associated with the sector,” Dudena said of the 1 January launch…We will start 2025 with strict and clear rules, in addition to mechanisms to demand their compliance, operators [will] be held accountable,” he said in a recent interview with iGamingBusiness.com.
Should Brazil’s online gambling market get off to, and maintain, a steady start it has the potential to be one of the most robust online gambling markets on the planet.