Legal action
Brazil gives prospective operators August deadline, match-fixing fight, Colombia lottery prizes +Más
Brazil: Betting operators have until August 20 to apply for a license.
In +Más: Loterj publishes accreditation notice.
Brazil: Match-fixing fight gets dirty.
Colombia: Lotteries distribute $9.3m in major prizes.
Paraguay: Conajzar has collected over $9m this year.
Don’t miss the deadline, darling.
Brazil deadline
August rush: Gambling companies wanting to operate legally in Brazil when the country’s new regulatory framework comes into force next year have until August 20 to apply for a license, Régis Dudena, president of the Prize and Betting Secretariat (SPA) has revealed.
Speaking at an event in São Paulo, the SPA chief said companies can apply for authorization at any time, but if they want to start the next year regularized, they must meet the August deadline.
Approved operators will be notified before November 18 and will have until December 18 to pay the license fee of BRL30m ($5.6m).
The SPA expects authorizations to be granted on December 31.
From January 1, 2025, all companies operating in Brazil without SPA authorization will be doing so illegally and may receive sanctions.
The power of one: According to the SPA, over 130 companies have expressed an interest in obtaining the federal license, but only one – Kaizen Gaming, owner of the Betano brand – has registered in the Ministry of Finance’s Betting Management System (Sigap).
Dudena reiterated that foreign companies wishing to operate in Brazil need a local subsidiary in which a Brazilian must own at least 20% of the shares.
+Más
The State Lottery of Rio de Janeiro (Loterj) has published the accreditation edict for the operation of instant lottery in the state. Licenses will be granted for 10 years, with operators paying Loterj a remuneration of 5% of GGR. The minimum payout must be 59%.
Slot provider Belatra has signed a content agreement with City Center Online to supply its games portfolio, including Dragons Bonanza and the newly released Tony Gambler, to the Argentine iCasino operator.
Platform provider Digitain has appointed Alonso Jibaja as its regional sales director for Latin America. He comes with over 10 years’ experience in the iGaming industry in the region.
Come together: Federico Rodriguez Aguiar, marketing analyst and consultant for the gaming and betting industry, has called for collaboration among regulators across Latin America and the Caribbean, saying it is “fundamental… to ensure integrity and safety in the gaming industry.”
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Pitch battle
Some heads are gonna roll: Heated rivals on the field, the bosses of two of Brazil’s most popular football clubs have taken the fight to the country’s Senate in a clash over match-fixing claims.
Palmeiras president Leila Pereira has said Botafogo owner John Textor should be booted out of the sport if he cannot back up claims her side contested a rigged game.
It’s a scandal: A Brazilian Senate committee is taking evidence on betting irregularities in football, as multiple scandals envelop the sport in a land where the game is more akin to a religion.
Textor, a US businessman and controversial figure, was the first witness called when the probe opened in April, and he drew fury by claiming he has evidence that a crucial match between Palmeiras and São Paulo last year was manipulated by five players.
In response, Pereira went in two-footed: “It’s unacceptable for a foreigner to come to Brazil and cast doubts on our clubs without any proof, simply because his team failed to win the title.”
Textor has presented lawmakers with reports from a technology firm, which analyzes the behavior of players and referees, purportedly to support his claims.
Off the bench, you gotta own it: Pereira told the committee the allegations were unfounded and that Palmeiras is taking legal action against Textor in civil, criminal and sports courts.
“If he doesn’t prove anything, and there is absolutely no proof so far, he must be expelled from Brazilian football. Penalties need to be severe to be effective,” she said.
Other figures from soccer in Brazil have lined up to criticize Textor and downplay the accusations, including a referee’s association and Wilson Luiz Seneme, president of the Arbitration Commission of the Brazilian Football Confederation.
The committee is chaired by soccer hero-turned-senator Romario, and was formed to investigate various allegations of fraud and match-fixing involving players, officials and betting operators.
At the end of the drive the lawmen arrive: A fortnight ago, seven people suspected of fixing games in at least two Brazilian state leagues were the latest to be arrested in a probe dubbed Operation Game Over that was launched back in 2015.
Those cuffed in morning raids across four Brazilian states were believed to have links to betting syndicates in Malaysia, China and Indonesia.
Other investigations are running concurrently into corruption in football, with the tentacles of criminal enterprises stretched beyond the country into other parts of the world where the Samba Boys ply their trade.
West Ham’s Brazilian star Lucas Paquetá faces a 10-year ban from football after the UK Football Association charged him late last month with four counts of spot-fixing.
West Ham’s own shirt sponsor Betway alerted the authorities to suspicious betting patterns linked to games Paquetá played in, with the dodgy punts traced to the island off Rio de Janeiro where the player grew up.
According to reports, lawmakers are hauling Paquetá back to Brazil to explain himself to the panel.
Colombian lotteries
Big bucks: As of the first week of June, six Colombian lotteries have distributed $9.3m in major prizes, an amount equivalent to 33% of the total prizes paid by these games. According to Coljuegos president, Marco Emilio Hincapié, the 15 authorized lotteries operating in the country have paid out approximately $28m, while $20m has been transferred to the health sector.
Not to be sniffed at: “Both the transfers and the paid prizes demonstrate that it is indeed worthwhile to play legally,” said Hincapié.
“That is why… we are signing agreements across the country to protect and strengthen territorial games.”
Among the lotteries with the largest prizes paid to date are the Medellín Lottery ($3.8m), Santander Lottery ($2.54m), National Lottery of the Colombian Red Cross ($1.27m), Cundinamarca Lottery ($1m), Quindío Lottery ($460k) and Cauca Lottery ($350k).
Illegal gambling
Physical gambling in the department of Norte de Santander has contributed around $2m so far in 2024 to subsidize the public health system and to develop social projects benefiting more than 1.6m inhabitants. However, illegal gambling in 2023 reached $2.1m.
Of this, $620k corresponded to unauthorized raffles, $580k to ‘white’ chance, $430k to illegal sports betting, $190k to clandestine casinos and $77k to keno.
Fighting talk: Hincapié indicated that with the signing of the pact for legality with the Governo’s Office, the Mayor’s Office, the Cúcuta Lottery and the concessionaire Red de Servicios de Norte de Santander, “we are fighting illegality throughout the national territory. We cannot allow unauthorized bets to continue financing criminal structures.”
Jhony Batalla, legal advisor to Red de Servicios, said: “In the department, there is a criminal enterprise of illegal gambling. We have unauthorized raffles, chance, casinos and sports betting.”
“The situation is problematic, but we are working with Coljuegos to generate pedagogy that allows us to counteract illegality.”
So far this year, the Norte de Santander Police have arrested 27 people involved in operating illegal bets in the department.
Paraguay collections
High five: The National Gaming Commission of Paraguay (Conajzar) reported that between January and May of this year it collected $9.26m, an increase of 11.5% compared to the same period in 2023 ($8.3m).
In January, almost $2m was collected; in February, $1.7m; in March, $1.8m; in April, $1.88m; and in May, $1.8m.
In 2023, the highest revenues were recorded from September to November, which together exceeded $5.7m.
Paraguayan law establishes that all resources from gambling must be allocated to the public health, education and social welfare sectors.
Publication schedule
This is the English version of the LosIngresos+Mas newsletter published yesterday (June 12).
An +More Media publication.
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