Senate may vote on project that taxes sports betting in Brazil

The Senate may vote this Tuesday, 12th, on the bill that regulates and taxes sports betting in Brazil. The PL was already on the agenda for voting in the plenary, but was postponed due to lack of agreement with the opposition, which accuses the government of giving approval to gambling in the country.

The urgency of the vote was approved at the end of November, but the majority of senators chose to wait for a new session for a final analysis of the topic. The postponement had support from the government base.

This is one of the measures being processed in Congress considered essential for the government to increase revenue in 2024 and eliminate the deficit in public accounts. The Ministry of Finance expects to raise R$2 billion next year with the measure, but an estimate considered conservative.

The ministry reported at the beginning of December that more than 130 companies had previously expressed interest in authorizing fixed-odd sports betting.

Companies that presented a prior expression of interest will have priority for authorization requests, according to the Treasury, "as soon as the deadline for receiving applications and grant payments opens."

How the taxation of sports betting will work
The proposal underwent changes in the Senate. The text approved in the previous Chamber included a tax of 18% on the platforms' gross revenue minus the prizes paid to bettors, the so-called GGR (gross gaming revenue, in its acronym in English). The new report sets a rate of 12%. The percentage is close to that desired by companies in the betting sector.

The division of the amount collected has also changed. The new opinion defines:

• 10% to the Ministry of Education;
   
• 14% for the area of public security, such as the National Public Security Fund (FNSP) and the Integrated Border Monitoring System (Sisfron);
   
• 36% for the sports area, such as the Ministry of Sports and sports committees;
   
• 10% for social security;
   
• 28% for the tourism sector, such as the Brazilian Agency for International Tourism Promotion (Embratur) and the Ministry of Tourism;
   
• 1% for the Ministry of Health;
   
• 0.50% for civil society entities, such as the Associations of Parents and Friends of the Exceptional (Fenapaes), the National 
   
• Federation of Pestalozzi Associations (Fenapestalozzi) and the Brazilian Red Cross;
  and 0.50% to the Fund for the Equipment and Operationalization of Core Activities of the Federal Police (Funapol).
   

The text also requires foreign Bets to have at least 20% of the capital in the hands of a Brazilian company. The project also defines an initial grant to authorize the sites to operate legally, of R$30 million, for five years.

In the case of taxation of prizes received by bettors, there was a reduction in the rate from 30% to 15%. This charge will occur once a year. Amounts lower than the IR exemption table, currently R$2,112, will not be taxed.