Sports betting: check what the law says about bets – 06/01/2023 – Sports

The sports betting market has grown in Brazil in the midst of a vacuum left by the government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL), a kind of gray area of ​​legality.

It’s just that, on December 12, 2018, when he was already preparing to pass the presidential sash, Michel Temer (MDB) sanctioned law 13,756, approved days earlier by Congress and which, among other things, created this kind of lottery of “bets “.

But the law did not come with specific rules for the sector. Instead, it established that, within four years, the Ministry of Finance would take care of the regulation. And that never happened.

For those offering these services, the absence of regulation seems to have made little difference. Websites have multiplied like never before in the country and have become almost ubiquitous sponsors in various sports, starting with football.

“Once authorized by law, sites can enter the Brazilian market. Regulation would be a second step”, says lawyer João Vitor Kanufre Xavier, who addressed gambling in his master’s thesis at USP.

According to him, the norm approved in the Temer government opened a tacit exception to the Criminal Misdemeanors Law, which has prohibited gambling in Brazil since 1941.

This octogenarian law prohibits “establishing or exploiting gambling in a public place or accessible to the public”, defining gambling as follows:

“a) gambling in which winnings and losses depend exclusively or mainly on luck; b) bets on horse racing outside the racecourse or where they are authorized; c) bets on any other sporting competition”.

The same law determines a fine of up to R$ 200,000 for anyone who participates in the game as a gambler, but, according to the lawyer, the penalty does not apply to this new market for “bets”.

“Law 13.756/2018 authorizes sports betting, so it would not make sense to charge users a fine”, says Xavier, who is a partner at the law firm Galvão Villani, Navarro, Zangiácomo e Bardella Advogados.

The exception created by the 2018 law only applies to so-called fixed odds bets, those in which the amount to be won is predefined at the time of the guess. And as long as the bet is related to a real sports-themed event – ​​jogo do bicho and bingo remain prohibited.

But, for lawyer Matheus Puppe, the fact that the 2018 law did not explicitly repeal the Criminal Misdemeanors Law leaves a scenario of legal uncertainty.

“In terms of legality in Brazil, online sports betting is in a gray area”, says Puppe, who specializes in new technologies and is a partner at Maneira Advogados.

“It is possible to argue that Law 13.756/2018, by establishing a new type of sports betting, effectively ‘legalized’ this activity and, therefore, made the provisions of the Criminal Misdemeanors Law on the subject irrelevant”, says the lawyer. “However, it is a question to be resolved by the Judiciary.”

This uncertain environment helps to explain why the sector’s operators are based abroad, in countries where sports betting is explicitly legalized.

“Although the bet can be placed within Brazil, the financial transaction and the operation take place in a place where this is legal”, says Puppe. The Brazilian gambler, in this case, does not commit a criminal offense.

The absence of specific rules for this billionaire market brings a series of other problems. According to Guilherme de Carvalho Doval, partner at Almeida Advogados, these are uncertainties that affect all actors directly and indirectly involved in the sector.

“In addition to the issues common to the regulation of any economic activity, the betting case involves sensitive issues, such as concerns about money laundering, third-party intellectual property rights and the issue of match-fixing”, says Doval, who is president of the Court of Sports Justice of the Football Federation of Minas Gerais.

In theory, regulation would deal with several of these issues. According to the law, to explore fixed odds sports betting in Brazil, the sites will receive authorization or concession from the Ministry of Finance.

“To operate regularly in Brazil, bookmakers must comply with the requirements of the regulation, leaving the gray zone that exists today”, says Doval.

The government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) promised to regulate the betting market, and the Ministry of Finance says it is finalizing a proposal for a provisional measure with that objective.

The initiative is in the interest of the government because, currently, sports betting houses are based abroad and do not pay taxes in Brazil.

Thus, the definition of rules would represent a new source of revenue – an amount that the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, estimates at up to R$ 15 billion.

Regulations must also deal with oversight, a sensitive issue in the face of recent accusations of match-fixing.

In addition, other topics that are in the government’s sights are website advertising and informational and preventive actions related to pathological gambling disorder.