The World Bank Group-ICN award honors the best competition advocacy initiatives in various strands and aims to highlight successful proposals that can be replicated in other countries.
Sefel, who assumed the responsibilities of the Ministry of Finance's Economic Monitoring Office related to competition law in lotteries and energy sector, was awarded in the category "opening market for the private sector", for its performance in the concession of public service of the Federal Government's Exclusive Instant Lottery (LOTEX). The bidding process is expected to expand lottery market revenues from 0.21 percent of GDP in 2016 to 1 percent of GDP in 10 years to the benefit of consumers and the country's fiscal landscape.
Waldir Eustáquio Marques, General Coordinator of Prizes and Drawings Governance, said in his speech after receiving the award:
“Thank you very much for the recognition. My name is Waldir Marques, Brazilian General-Coordinator of Lotteries Regulation and it´s so important to us this recognition of the opening of Brazil’s lottery market as a case in advocacy of completion. We are talking specifically onto Exclusive Instant Lottery (LOTEX) private concession that will able Federal Government privatize its operation looking forward to reach efficiency in the commercialization of instant tickets.
As future interventions, as an example of a procompetitive regulation, Ministry of Finance is working to align the bettor’s payout of others existent lotteries with the best global practices, in order to promote a healthy competition between the LOTEX concessionaire and the traditional lottery, increasing the entire market to a revenue around 1% of the GDP in the next ten years.
All actions planned for privatization of the LOTEX are being conducted with total transparency. We´re trying to improve efficiency in lottery exploration, based on international expertise and best practices. And if we could map an effective strategy of communication that collaborated for LOTEX success pathway, we could point the priority that the privatization process is receiving in Brazilian Government, being a priority project into Ministry of Finance and the whole process of privatization is being supervised by Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) and Republic Presidency - what will makes the public notice be published in this first half of year.”
Since 2013, the World Bank Group and the International Competition Network (ICN) have been organizing the tender. The World Bank Group works in two areas related to the defense of competition: advising the countries on the implementation of pro-competitive regulations and effective enforcement. ICN, which is integrated by world defense of competition authorities, is the most active international institution in international cooperation in the field of defense of competition, encouraging convergence and adoption of best practices in competitive policy in the world.
The federal lottery service has been a statutory monopoly in Brazil since 1962. In 2015, Congress enacted a new federal law authorizing the initiation of the process of privatization of the "instant lottery" modality. The Ministry of Finance, through Seae, coordinated this process, recommending the concession of the service directly to a private company.
The Secretariat for Fiscal, Energy and Lottery Monitoring (Sefel) has given special attention to the creation of a healthy and sustainable competitive environment throughout this process. Although only the instant lottery modality is being granted to the private sector, the degree of economic substitutability between lottery modalities (number draw, passive, instantaneous and numerical prognostic) shows that, by granting the instant lottery market to private investors, Sefel will bring contestability to the entire lottery market. In addition, as a Brazilian lottery regulator, Sefel is also working to implement a modern and competitive regulatory framework for other lottery modalities, in order to promote competition isonomy among its operators.
Source: GMB
