Contract for MG government “bet” site is investigated – 06/01/2023 – Sport

The government of Minas Gerais entered the controversial “bet” market, of online sports betting, with the creation via LEMG (Minas Gerais State Lottery) of a website, Lotominas.bet.

The site is the first in this modality, as the government of Minas itself says, to be put into operation in the country by a state. The contract signed by LEMG to make the system viable, however, is under investigation by the TCE-MG (State Court of Auditors).

In Minas, the state online betting service was transferred to the company Intralot, which is already the concessionaire of the state lottery, without carrying out a bidding process and without charging a grant, reasons that led to the activation of the TCE by state deputy Ricardo Campos (PT).

Intralot did not respond to questions raised by the report.

The TCE reported that the current phase of the investigation is to determine the content of the representation. The MP-MG (Minas Gerais Public Prosecutor’s Office) was also contacted and, in a preliminary investigation, gave LEMG 20 days to pass on information about the contract.

The communiqué to Loteria Mineira was sent by the MP on the last 24th. Based on the responses, a decision will be taken on opening a possible inquiry.

The Secretary of State for Finance claims that it did not carry out the bidding because it understood that it would not be necessary, since it had a previous contract with the company.

As for there being no charge for the grant, the ministry said it had agreed with the company to pay 30.1% of the net collection from betting. The secretariat claims to have already sent all necessary information about the term to the TCE.

The contract cited by the government provides for face-to-face betting with the purchase of cards, very common in bars. Numbers are drawn on a television. If the predictions that appear on the screen are on the card, the bettor takes the prize, which varies according to the total number of hits.

Intralot has been a LEMG concessionaire since 2010 for this type of game. According to the Secretariat of Finance, the contract with the company was renewed in 2021 and is valid until 2025. The online sports betting site started operating in February 2023.

“Our job as a legislator is to supervise and monitor state acts in favor of public management. And we observe that this contract is illegal. A state service offered to the private sector has to be done through concession”, says deputy Ricardo Campos.

Legislation

The online sports betting market in Brazil had law, number 13,756, approved on December 12, 2018. Article 29 of the text says that “the lottery modality is created, in the form of an exclusive public service of the Union, called fixed-quota betting , whose commercial exploitation will take place throughout the national territory”.

The law also says that the lottery modality “consists of a betting system related to real sports-themed events, in which it is defined, at the time of placing the bet, how much the player can win in case of a correct prediction”.

The law, however, has not yet been regulated. Questioned about when this will occur, the Ministry of Finance stated that the issue is a priority.

“In this sense, the current management of the Ministry of Finance is aware of the urgent need to regulate the lottery modality created by Law No. with the other competent bodies”, said the folder, in a note sent to the report.

According to the ministry, regulation should take place in 2023. As the procedure has not yet been implemented at the federal level, the government of Minas made its own regulations, which made it possible for the system to operate in the state, as of February 2023.

The Ministry of Finance informed that, as long as the legislation is respected, the government of Minas Gerais can put this type of site in operation. At least two other states have already put plans in motion to have online sports betting platforms.

In Paraná, a bidding notice to define a company that will be responsible for the service was published in February. The same was done by Rio de Janeiro in April. On the mining site, bets can be placed via Pix or credit card.