Brazil: Gambling legalisation goes ahead

A few weeks ago, the House of Representatives in Brazil has agreed to legalise many gambling games. This means that very soon gambling games as slot machines, bingo and even some online gambling games could be legal in the largest country in South America. But why is Brazil now deciding in favour of legalising gambling?

Step by step it seems that even the Brazilian government is making the way for the legalising of gambling to the greatest possible extent. At the end of February, the House of Representatives of Brazil voted in favour of the legalisation of several gambling games. Among these there should be casinos, slot machines, and bingo and some online gambling games. In November 2020, therefore around one and a half years ago, we had asked in an article, whether the gambling sector in Brazil will finally be legalised.

Gambling legalisation in Brazil: vote of the senate has not been confirmed

Brazil is not only the largest country in South America, but when measured according to its population, it is also the sixth largest state in the world. It seems that the more than 211 million inhabitants can now soon be able to gamble legally. At the end of February the Brazilian House of Representatives had already voted with a majority in favour of a proposed legislation to legalise more gambling games. As a result of this law, bingo and also some online gambling games may now be provided legally in gambling halls, slot machines and casinos in Brazil. 

After the House of Representatives has given the green light, the Senate must now vote about the draft amendment. As long as the Senate also approves the amendment, the latter must only be approved by the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. The problem: Bolsonaro has already indicated several times that he will not give his support to a corresponding law. In this case however, the Senate has the possibility to use a veto. In exceptional cases a law can also be adopted without the agreement of the President.

Those in favour of legalising gambling are sure that both the tourism industry as well as the employment sector in the country will benefit from this action. At the end of the day the state will also expect to generate more income from taxes. Meanwhile the House of Representatives had suggested that a 30 % tax is imposed on the gross income from gambling activities. This high tax rate reminds us of the controversial player tax of 5.3 % which was introduced in German online casinos.

Till now only sports bets and state lotto games are legal

At present only horse and sports races and state lotto games are legal in the South American State. All other forms of gambling have till now been illegal. In the very near future the world of gambling in Brazil is set to change radically. Besides integrated Casino-Resorts there will also be tourism casinos and even casino ships. In April of last year we had reported about a floating luxury casino in the neighbouring country of Argentina.

Conclusion

Nearly a year and a half ago we had reported about the plans of the Brazilian government to legalise several gambling games in the country. However it was only at the end of February that the House of Representatives voted in favour of this. Now the Senate and the President still have to give the bill the green light. We are excited to see when exactly gambling games as casinos, bingo and slot machines will be finally legalised in the South American country, and also to see whether there will be player protection measures such as an auto spin-ban, as well as a minimum playing time of five seconds, as is the case in Germany.

Image Source: https://pixabay.com/de/photos/brasilien-rio-landschaft-tourismus-4809011/