The employees currently working at the Ministry of Finance do not intend to participate in the discussion on the regulation of sports betting if they have to leave the department they are in, which means that the process could go back to square one.
They have expressed great concern about the possibility that the care and technical investment (participation of the Federal Police and Coaf, a program against gaming addiction) dedicated today to a complex topic will give way to a "general liberalization" with the Centrão bloc, as Folha’s Painel shown.
The message has already reached betting market operators, who then contacted Treasury. The fear is that the accumulated knowledge and consensus already reached between the government and the private sector will be lost with the transfer of the body.
One of the examples cited by Finance officials and private operators is that of Finance advisor José Francisco Manssur, who heads the discussion and whose continuity in a changing scenario is considered uncertain. When contacted by Folha’s Painel, he did not want to comment.
The future secretariat will manage the resources of sports betting in Brazil and is expected to have 65 positions. Even though it has not been constituted, there are already several employees from Treasury and also from other departments who have led the debate and who should be incorporated into the body as soon as it formally comes into existence.
There are 121 positions in the Ministry of Sports, a structure assessed as insufficient, even with the incorporation of the secretariat, to deal with a subject considered complex, delicate, surrounded by lobbies and which, according to calculations by the federal government, should initially generate annual revenue of approximately R$2 billion (US$ 400m).
There is an assessment in the market that the revenue potential could be between R$6 billion (US$ 1.2bn) and R$12 billion (US$ 2.4bn).
And the scope of the secretariat could become even greater depending on the president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira, one of the main people responsible for Fufuca's appointment.
Lira expressed his intention to include the regulation of online casinos, currently banned in Brazil, in the text of the sports betting bill that should be voted on next week.
Source: Folha
