The president of the Brazilian Institute of Responsible Gaming (IBJR), Andre Gelfi, was this week's guest on the Brazilian Lounge podcast. After the day's headlines, he introduced the entity and reinforced the importance of the government to better understand the gaming and betting activity to attract players to the future regulated market in the country.
“A few days ago I was at the CPI on match-fixing and the focus of the parliamentarians was to get to know the sports betting houses,” commented Gelfi, noting that they are not the problem involving match-fixing.
The president of the IBJR highlighted the importance of the partnership with Conar so that the sports betting sector has a self-regulation code. "We are founding members of the iGaming industry and we are very focused on regulation as well as the advertising issue of our industry."
For him, responsible advertising is essential to give credibility to the sector, in order to show society as a whole the seriousness of an industry that operates globally within strict concepts of compliance and responsible gaming practices.
Andre Gelfi commented that it is very important for the government to realize that only presenting an adequate tax condition will attract operators to the legal market and not the simple application of a specific rate of 18% on the GGR. “One cannot think that just by setting a high rate and requiring companies to become accredited, everything will happen the way he expects.”
By understanding the sector's global dynamics, in the opinion of the president of the IBJR, the government will realize that high taxes will make the regulated scenario unfeasible. “An operator that focuses on sports betting, at least 30% of its activities involve online casino games. He will have to make the choice of whether or not to bring his business to Brazil, forgoing an important source of income,” he commented.
Among other considerations, Gelfi commented on the inadequacy of the regulatory process in setting restrictions on bettors who are credit constrained. “The consumer is free to hire services or buy any product. Restraining the freedom of a person of legal age makes no sense,” he said.
“We are seeing Congress accelerating the issue of sports betting regulation and the government will have to work on detailing all of this in the coming months. It is an absolutely pertinent and fundamental discussion for all of us,” he concluded.
Source: GMB
