INSIGHT LATIN AMERICA FOCUS
EL SALVADOR
In December 2021, El Salvador’s Ministry of Finance presented a new law to the Legislative Assembly which would give the National Lottery (Lotería Nacional de Beneficencia de El Salvador) the right to both oversee and run sports betting and online casino games nationwide. If approved, the new law will give the LNB permission to authorise third-parties to operate sports betting by means of a permit, licence, agreement, contract, concession, or public-private partnership.
Te legislation would provide the LNB with the ability to regulate, monitor, supervise, organise and run the new games via a third party. Licences will be valid for a 10 year period. Fees have yet to be determined by the Lottery's board of directors.
MEXICO
Mexico has permitted sports betting since 2005 due to the amendment to Mexico’s 1947 gaming laws which allowed Te Ministry of the Interior (SEGOB) to grant gaming licences. Since then, sports betting has spread quickly and sports betting shops are often part of much larger gaming establishments. Online gaming has been permitted via special licence in Mexico since 2000, but only land based operators have been allowed to offer their services locally.
President López Obrador, who was elected in 2018, announced that during his six year term no new licences would be granted to open any new casinos in Mexico. He has repeated this claim a number of times since then. Meanwhile, states have granted their own licences, initiated new regulations on a state level and increased taxes. While the President is against casino gambling expansion, sports betting and gambling reform is currently on the agenda of the President’s ruling National Regeneration Movement (Morena) party.
In January 2020 a member of the Morena Party, Ulises Murguía Soto, put forward an initiative to allow for online gambling. In justifying the need for change, the legislator explained that online gambling sites were taking advantage of existing loopholes, meaning that players were uncertain whether the site where they were playing was entirely legal and above board. Under the initiative SEGOB would authorise gambling and online gambling sites.
In May 2021, another member of the Morena Party, Congressman Erik Isaac Morales Elvira, presented a much wider proposal to expand the regulation of sports betting. Te initiative would reform the 1947 gaming laws and would give SEGOB the power to regulate the sports betting industry. A committee is now analysing the proposal. Te initiative states that due to the uncertainty caused by obsolete legislation very few online casinos are licensed by the government and the gaming industry in Mexico “is lagging behind.”
According to estimates from the Association of Licensees, Operators and Suppliers of the Entertainment and Gambling Industry in Mexico (AIEJA) (data which is quoted in the proposal), sports betting has become a growing industry
P86 WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS
Te private sector has the right to enter the market as long as the company adheres to Peru’s Civil code and the terms of their licence as granted to them by the municipal government in the locations where they are licensed. Tere are around 30 sports betting companies that operate in the country in accordance with local gaming laws.
Rules look set to change soon among growing impetus to place more federal control over the industry. Locally based sports betting operators such as Betsson, Te Apuesto and Inkabet have created an organisation called APADELA which is lobbying for a code of ethics, stricter rules against money laundering, self-exclusion programmes and more measures aimed to protect the integrity of sports. New regulations are undoubtedly needed as sports betting via offshore sites stands at around US$450m per year.
In 2018, Congress took a first step to regulate online sports betting in Peru after congresswoman Leyla Chihuán proposed updating sports betting laws so that they covered online sports betting. In 2021, Congressman Walter Ascona proposed a bill to regulate the payment of taxes from sports betting and invest the additional funds in associations to help with gambling related harm and promote sports.
Meanwhile, locally licensed sports betting is seeing a steady expansion with the number of physical sports betting outlets on the rise coupled with an increasingly visible online offer via sports sponsorship deals and advertising. In February 2021, Betsson secured naming rights to Peru’s top tier of professional football Liga 1 in Peru. Under the terms of the agreement, the graphic representations of the Peruvian championship will feature Betsson’s logo, both in the visual materials, on the digital platforms, as well as in the corporate identity of the Liga 1 which will now be known as Liga 1 Betsson.
Solbet, Doradobet, among other brands, are also present in football, sponsoring famous teams such as Universitario de Deportes and Club Sporting Cristal S.A both located in the city of Lima. In January, DoradoBet and Sporting Cristal extended their sponsorship agreement until 2024.
and currently generates around 8,430 million pesos per year made mainly via offshore betting sites. In addition, the proposal states that online sports betting in Mexico could grow between 25 per cent and 30 per cent per year over the next six or seven years. At the same time, sports betting is also increasingly visible via sponsorship deals in Mexico. Over half of the football teams that make up the top flight of Mexican football are now sponsored by betting companies.
PERU
Peru was the first jurisdiction to allow for online sports betting in Latin America, granting Betsson Peru a licence top operate as far back as 2008. Even though the market is fairly developed for now, sports betting shops are permitted via municipal licence and there is no specific authority that regulates them.
In December 2021, El
Salvador’s Ministry of Finance presented a new law to the Legislative Assembly which would give the National
Lottery (Lotería Nacional de Beneficencia de El Salvador) the right to both oversee and run sports betting and online casino games nationwide. If approved the new law will give the LNB permission to authorise third-parties to operate sports betting by means of a permit, license, agreement, contract,
concession, or public-private partnership. El Salvador
President López Obrador, who was elected in 2018,
announced that during his six year term that no new licenses would be granted to open any new casinos in Mexico. He has repeated this claim a number of times since then.
Meanwhile, states have
granted their own licences, initiated new regulations on a state level and increased
taxes. While the President is against casino gambling expansion, sports betting and gambling reform is currently on the agenda of the
President’s ruling National Regeneration Movement (Morena) party. Mexico
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