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Brazil Although online gambling is


currently banned in Brazil it is estimated that Brazilians gamble around US$600m a


year via offshore sports betting sites. Today it is estimated that about 8.7 million Brazilians play some form of online gambling.


It was also announced that at the end this year that BSOP will team up with The Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT) to host the end of this year’s Latin American Poker Tour in São Paulo. The BSOP Millions is the largest and most popular poker tournament in Latin America.


Igor Federal, Chief Executive Officer of the BSOP said in a statement: “The BSOP Millions and the LAPT Grand Final are the two most important live poker events in Latin America. The region has seen a massive increase in player numbers in recent years, with the BSOP reporting a 218 per cent increase in tournament entries since last year. Bringing together the two tours means that we can combine our efforts to create one amazing festival, and we are expecting record numbers of players.”


ONLINE Although online gambling is currently banned in


Brazil it is estimated that Brazilians gamble around US$600m a year via offshore sports betting sites. Today it is estimated that about 8.7 million Brazilians play some form of online gambling. The Brazilian market for online betting, generated in 2013, about R $1.8bn. It is estimated that, in 2014, this reached R$ 2.2bn. Social casino gaming in Brazil is becoming increasingly popular which


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could translate to real money games should Brazil eventually green light online gaming. The payment industry is also maturing


While online gaming has grown there have been a number of moves in both the Senate and House of Representatives to ban online gambling outright. In February 2011 Congressman and long standing opponent of gambling Luiz Carlos Hauly, announced the creation of Bill 57, which would have prohibited “the placing of bets on sporting event in nature via the internet” along similar lines to restrictions similar to that as enacted in the Unites States under the Unites States Unlawful Gambling Internet Enforcement Act of 1996.


Crucially, it also led to a wider discussion on online sports betting with a number of Congressmen stating that they were against the bill and instead supported a regulated online sports betting industry as it would raise much needed tax revenue. The latest attempt in the Senate to ban online gaming altogether came in 2012 when a proposal, which had previously been put forward in 2008 by Senator Magno Malta, was re considered by a Senatorial Committee on Science and Technology. The proposal would have blocked credit card transactions with online betting sites but in common with the majority of similar moves it slowly lost momentum.


However since then government sponsored studies have consistently proven that the government has been losing out on millions in tax revenue and the government has sought a more pragmatic approach when it comes to the issue of online gaming.


As mentioned earlier in 2014 a bill put forward by Brazilian Senator Ciro Nogueira sought to permit online and land based gaming and would reflect similar legislation in place in countries in Western Europe. The bill seeks to establish clear rules when


it comes to both the online industry and proposed opening up the land based industry as well.


Another recent proposal was put forward by Deputy Vanderlei Sirach in April 2014. He proposed legalising online gambling and presented studies arguing that a regulated online gaming market could yield up to R$15bn in taxes a year.


The passing of the Brazilian Internet Bill of Rights which was passed in April 2014 could have a major impact on the industry in the future. The bill made all online transactions subject to Brazilian law and gave the state the authority to block sites accused of flouting local conventions. The bill sets to implement restrictions on the use of unlicensed online gambling and sports betting operators. This could give the government more power when it comes to targeting offshore operators and would give authorities the right to block foreign websites.


It is widely believed that the bill could see the implementation of future restrictions on unauthorized operators. Restrictions could include ISP blocking. Further sanctions would see Brazilian banks impose blocks on payments to unlicensed online gaming operators.


For now it is very hard to tell how the government could use the new powers granted to them in the new act when it comes to online gaming. However, a cornerstone of the new act is that internet service providers open to Brazilian customers are now subject to Brazilian law.


While the law does not specify new rules for online gambling in theory should the government choose to take a tougher stance on online gambling then authorities could access records of local users when it comes to online betting and may choose to prosecute them for going against local gambling laws.


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