The first edition of the year is ideal to make a recap of what happened in 2023. Brazil experienced a somewhat unexpected announcement of final regulations of the gambling market for sports betting and some types of online casino products in the last days of 2023.
Many of us based in Brazil were already out of office enjoying a few days of vacation, when we witnessed the Brazilian government (Federal Administration) moving fast to sign the gaming regulations law before YE, after the legislative houses concluded their work.
This move was paramount to the development of the market in 2024, as some intricacies of the Brazilian fiscal law could, in theory, force any law change that happened only in 2024 to be valid only from January 1st 2025, which would be a disaster for the hopes of the Brazilian government to collect gaming taxes as soon as possible.
Accolades are in order as President Lula and his team moved fast to get this done still in 2023.
The big question is: what now, in practice?
Now the Brazilian government through institutions such as the Receita Federal (Brazilian IRS), needs to issue some secondary regulations, but those will be a lot more limited in terms of scope as the regulations that passed on the legislative houses are extremely straightforward.
There’s a Brazilian saying inspired by soccer which says when someone is due to act, that ‘the ball is with …’, which roughly translates as the English expression ‘the stage is yours’. Now the stage, or the ball, is with the Brazilian Federal government.
The list of operators and holdings that demonstrated formal interest in operating in Brazil is already published. That list was the subject of some controversy because the operators had to ‘announce’ this interest in the market before a definition regarding income tax in the region was defined. Nevertheless, over 100 holdings now are in a ‘priority list’ to operate in the country, although to be honest, no one really knows in practice what this ‘priority’ will actually mean.
One question that comes to mind, in my opinion, is what about groups that don’t invest at all in gaming? Because the invitation to ‘announce interest’ sounded like a call for existing gaming groups.
We certainly are kicking off with a lot more answers than questions in comparison with the dates of Jan 4th in 2023, 2022 and so on.
Let’s see what the future brings for Brazil. January is kind of a slow month as the peak of the summer vacations after the holiday season, and ICE London should be the pinnacle of big events for this market, with the relevant C-levels aiming the region enjoying the last edition of the event at Excel in London. Let’s see what January and ICE will bring in terms of news to Brazil and Latam.
See you next week!
