Brazilian Senate Readies Dec. 7 Vote on Gambling Bill

The Brazilian Senate will be voting on a long-debated gambling bill on December 7. If approved, the bill would open a massive, new regulated gaming market in South America’s most populous country.
The sweeping legislative package establishes regulations, licensing schemes, and tax structures for both land-based and internet gambling across the massive country.
Responsibilities for enforcing the new gambling structure would be split between government agencies with Caixa Econômica Federal (a government bank) handling the internet side of the business.  Caixa would also act as the licensing authority for all internet casinos, according to a report on G3 Newswire.
There’s a variety of licenses that would be available through a bidding process, including some that wouldn’t expire for 25 years.
In a nod to the corruption scandals that have rocked Brazilian political life in recent years, government officials and their families would be barred from owning casinos.
Should regulated gambling win out the Brazilian statehouse, it would still not be allowed everywhere in Brazil. The proposed measures include limits designed to keep casinos from congregating in one geographical zone. It also includes an amendment that prevents bingo halls from opening in cities with a population of less than 200,000.
How many casinos are actually in each city or town will also be determined by population, rather than demand. No municipality will have more than five casinos under the proposed plan.
Most of the tax revenue collected from regulated gambling, about 91 percent, would be used to fund Brazil’s equivalent of Social Security. The rest would go to the Federal Police, cultural funding, and Brazil’s Olympic programs.
The prospect of regulated gambling in Brazil should be music to the ears of potential operators and affiliates. Brazil is the largest country in South and about 43 percent of its population, around 100 million people, fall into the very desirable 25-54-year-old demographic.