Brazil's Ministry of Finance plans to launch the Sports Betting Secretariat by the end of January

By the end of January, Brazil's Ministry of Finance expects to create the National Gaming and Betting Secretariat, which will control the country's sports betting and online gambling sector. The agency will be in charge of processing authorizations, supervising tax collection, and preventing money laundering. The information was revealed in a report by the Metrópoles website.

The person most likely to be in charge of the new entity is lawyer José Francisco Manssur, current special advisor to the Executive Secretariat of the Ministry of Finance and one of the backers of the project that gave rise to the law of the Sociedade Anônima do Futebol (SAF).

The Treasury has secured 38 positions for the new secretariat, after negotiating with the Ministry of Public Service Management and Innovation during the second half of last year. The team will be made up of civil servants (some already working and to be relocated; others to be selected on a competitive basis), in addition to people coming from the private sector.

Minister of Finance Fernando Haddad

The Ministry of Sports plans to hire 12 additional officials, who will be in charge of fighting match-fixing and transferring the proceeds from betting to the sports organizations. Thus, a total of 50 officials are expected to be recruited, divided between the two parties.

The Treasury is rushing to set up the new secretariat as soon as possible, which will also have other functions in addition to betting, such as supervising the Caixa lotteries and taking charge of Lotex. At present, the team has about 15 officials, which are already overstretched.

Regarding the fight against gambling addiction, there is already a structure within the Ministry of Health responsible for disorders that will interact with the Treasury and Sports, so there would be no need to create a new body.

Almost ready and already in the testing phase, the operational system that will control the sector will be managed by the Ministry of Finance. On Wednesday (10/1) a meeting was held with representatives of the 134 companies that had previously expressed their interest in operating in the sports betting sector.

In addition to the secretariats, the creation of an integrity agency to control gambling and lotteries is still on the government's agenda. However, it would only be created at a later stage. This is because the process of creating a regulatory agency is slower.

José Manssur

Revenue

The Treasury is counting on revenues from the payment of taxes on bets placed online to increase collections and meet the zero fiscal deficit target.

In the 2024 Budget, the gambling revenue forecast was a conservative BRL 728 million (almost USD 150 million), but the Treasury's estimate has now risen to billions. This forecast did not take into account online gambling, which was included in the text during the law's passage through Congress, and accounts for around 65% of companies' turnover, which could increase revenue potential.

Now, according to Metropoles, with the estimate of granting licenses to 100 companies, the Treasury expects to collect at least BRL 3 billion ($617.8 million) this year from these authorizations alone. To this amount must be added estimated corporate taxes. As a result, around BRL 6 billion in gambling revenues this year is considered "feasible" by the economic team.

In the case of companies, the second stage of taxation will depend on the profit obtained, according to actual turnover. They will have to pay taxes (Pis/Cofins) on turnover or income tax on profits.