Brazil: sports-betting bill passes key Senate committee
Progess in Brazil, Mexican machines, Gambling.com earnings, Paraná licensing, Paraguay hearings +Más
Breaking news: Key Senate Committee approves Brazilian sports-betting bill.
AMLO goes ahead with controversial slots shutdown proposals.
Meanwhile, the Mexican authorities carry out raids against illegal machines operated by the cartels.
Gambling.com downplays affiliate prospects in LatAm.
Paraná: Lottopar authorizes a fourth sports-betting operator.
Paraguay: Public hearings begin for reforming the gambling law.
And if I only could, I'd make a deal with God.
Brazil progress
The sports-betting bill has passed a key committee vote in the Senate.
Safe passage: The economic affairs committee in the Brazilian senate has given its approval of the sports-betting bill and nixed the attempt to have iCasino excluded from the legislation while including language to reduce the tax rate from 18% to 12%.
The bill now goes before the full Senate for approval after which it will also go before the Chamber of Deputies before heading for the desk of President Lula.
It is thought a Senate vote could take place next Tuesday, Nov. 28.
Chopping and changing: The tax rate change came after committee members put forward proposals in late October. That came after intense lobbying from the industry that had warned the effective tax rate implied by the 18% would be closer to 30% after municipal and social security taxes were taken into account.
Out of the closet: In a video posting on X, the senator with responsibility for shepherding the bill through parliament, Angelo Coronel, said the reason for legislating for online gambling was so the industry could “come out of hiding”.
“The Brazilian people will gain from this because the government will have more resources to invest in social areas,” he added.
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+Más
Pragmatic Play has signed up Paraguay and Brazil-facing Giro Win for the supply of slots and games. Meanwhile, DAZN Bet has debuted with its Pragmatic Play sportsbook backend in the Spanish market.
SmartSoft Gaming is the new official digital sponsor of the current football world champions Argentina.
Earnings in brief
Loterías Caixa generated revenues of 16.2bn reals ($3.3bn) in the first nine months of 2023, a 1.3% increase compared to the same period in 2022; while the prizes awarded to players during the same period amounted to $1.07bn.
In Q3, Caixa’s net profit was $657m, 16.5% higher YoY. From January to September, the net profit exceeded $1.6bn, an 8.4% increase compared to the first nine months of 2022.
Career paths
Fernando Garita has been appointed CEO at Betsul. Garita was previously regional director and director of business development at Betcris.
Diary date
The 32nd edition of SAGSE Latam 2024 will take place on March 20 and 21 at the Hilton Hotel and Convention Center in Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires, and will be attended by operators and regulators from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador.
Mexican machines
Shutdown: The government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) has gone ahead with its controversial plans to not grant new permits for the installation and/or operation of slot machines. Existing permits will only be respected until their expiration but will not be renewed.
The decree, published in the Official Gazette of the Federation, also warned that the validity of all permits will inexorably end within the next 15 years from the publication of the regulation on Nov. 17.
The rights of operators of venues with slot machines will continue to be respected until the expiration of their permits, now set at 15 years. There will be no extensions.
Controversial: Earlier this year when the move was first mooted, the president was heavily criticized, with critics arguing the elimination of permits would impact the industry and hinder its growth, ultimately resulting in job losses.
Slot machines were introduced under the presidency of AMLO’s predecessor Felipe Calderón.
There are now more than 400 casinos operating with slot machines in the country, while a further 400 await authorization.
According to the legal provision, the regulation affects all “betting games played with cards… dice, roulette wheels or slot machines”.
Seizures
Posse: Meanwhile, in a joint operation conducted simultaneously in eight properties, Mexican authorities seized 127 illegal slot machines. According to reports, the raids took place in the areas of Josefa Ocampo De Mata, Solidaridad, Ampliación Gertrudis Sánchez, Lázaro Cárdenas and Centro de Morelia.
The coordinated operation involved the Attorney General's Office of the State of Michoacán (FGE), with support from the National Anti-Kidnapping Coordination (CONASE) and the Ministry of Public Security, through the subsecretariat of Specialized Investigation (SIE).
The confiscated machines were handed over to the Public Prosecutor's Office, which will continue with the investigations.
Deus ex machina: This is the second blow to illegal gambling in less than two months, as authorities dismantled 11 illegal ‘mini’ casinos with 163 slot machines operated by two drug cartels in September. Authorities estimated these establishments generated a combined monthly profit of up to $117,000.
Know your local cartel: Local media reported a source from the Civil Guard, who suggested there could be around 100k illegal slot machines in the Valle de Apatzingán alone operated by the Los Viagras and El Barbas cartels.
Gambling.com earnings
Expectations management: Charles Gillespie, CEO at betting and gaming affiliate provider Gambling.com, warned on the company's Q3 call not to “expect a big bang” in Brazil as and when it opens, at least from the affiliate perspective, due to many of the operators already controlling large databases of players.
“We’re not anti-Latin America at all,” he added. “We think it’ll be a phenomenal growth driver of this business, in time. But we also think that there’s no meaningful first-mover advantage.”
Cash and carry: For Gambling.com, Gillespie said, Latin America would be “much more similar to the UK than it would be to the US”. “When gray markets go fully regulated, it’s all the same operators,” he added. “In many cases, the player accounts just carry over.”
“To the extent that that gets serious and we see some big numbers coming out of Latin America, we can easily move our premier assets like Gambling.com and Casinos.com into those markets,” he added.
In Q3, overall revenues rose 19% to $23.5m but adj. EBITDA fell 6% to $6.1m. See Earnings+More for more.
Paraná licensing
The road to operations: The State Lottery of Paraná (Lottopar) has announced that Pixbet has received permission to begin integrating into its management platform and payment methods. Pixbet becomes the fourth sports-betting company authorized to operate in the state.
Pixbet executives visited Lottopar’s president, Daniel Romanowski, and the municipal board to mark the symbolic delivery of a $1m check to the company, representing the amount of the licensing fee.
According to Lottopar, Pixbet will start operating “as soon as all integration steps are completed and tests are carried out, thus ensuring the security of all systems involved in this lottery operation”.
Public hearings
Hear me out: The Legislation and Codification Committee, led by deputy Jorge Ávalos Mariño (PLRA-Paraguarí) of the Paraguayan Chamber of Deputies, has started public hearings to discuss the reform of the legal regime for the operation of gambling. The first meeting took place on Tuesday, Nov. 21.
In the opinion of the lawmakers advocating for the reform, the current concessions favor the formation of monopolies, which goes against the prohibition as outlined by the National Constitution.
The power of three: The project establishes that concessions be granted to at least the “three best bidders who meet the regulator's requirements, which may include an increase in the fee they pay for such activity”. The current legislation states that only one bidder will be successful per concession.
Publishing schedule
This is the English version of the LosIngresos+Mas newsletter published yesterday (23 November).
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