The law regulating this type of activity was sanctioned at the end of last year. The text also taxes the winnings of bettors and the revenue of companies.
The program, developed by the Federal Data Processing Service, will be able to identify fraud in tax payments and also monitor the profiles of bettors, alerting them to possible addiction. Companies will be required by law to provide player data.
"It's an integrated system that will show us in real-time, perhaps with a few minutes of delay, the movement of bets, so that we can not only supervise tax collection but also possible fraud, negative externality, or even manipulation of results," said Francisco Manssur, special advisor to the Finance, responsible for the subject in the department.
The Treasury also wants to cross-reference data to know how many hours bettors spend online.
"We want to match the data from all companies, per user. If Jose da Silva, for example, is spending more than 10 hours betting, we can capture a case of eventual pathology and indebtedness," said Mansur.
Fraud alert
The system will also be accessed by the Ministry of Sports, which will monitor atypical sports bets that may indicate manipulation of football results. If, for example, a sports bet of US$ 20,5 million on a corner kick by a small team is located, this could trigger a yellow flag, as it would not be a common bet.
From there, the government would send a notice to the team or sports entity responsible for analyzing the athlete's behavior on the field. Sports will also be responsible for redistributing the proceeds from bets to sports entities.
Authorization begins
The Ministry of Finance is working to open, by early February, the deadline for online betting companies to apply for authorization to operate in Brazil, as provided for by the law.
The registration window is expected to open twice a year and will be open for a few weeks. Companies that miss the period or have their requests denied will be illegal in Brazil.
To be authorized to operate in Brazilian territory, the company will first have to hire a government-accredited laboratory for an adequacy analysis and issuance of a certificate of compliance with the rules established by law. It will be like an external audit.
The documents will then be submitted to the government within the established deadline, and authorization will be issued within 30 days after payment of the mandatory fee of US$ 6 million.
"The law did not come to release the games; it came to protect people. The games already existed without any rules. We created a regulatory framework. We have to do tax justice and collect so that the government can invest in priorities, health, education, basic sanitation. We have in mind 12 ordinances to release throughout the year," said the Treasury advisor.
The government's first ordinance, which complements the law passed by the National Congress, will validate the audit laboratories. The second will regulate the advertising of betting platforms on social networks, radio, and TV. The third will establish deadlines for authorization to operate.
"We are looking at advertising seriously. In the ordinance, we will talk about the responsibility of the company that makes the advertisement and the vehicle that is displaying it. We will not allow camouflaged advertising or messages from those who got rich overnight," guaranteed the Treasury advisor.
Mansur also said that the government will carefully scrutinize digital influencers who may link false information and unauthorized games.
"The virtual environment that children and adolescents frequent today has no defined hours; we no longer have children's programming on TV. We need to see if the message being conveyed is not being directed at children," he said.
Francisco Mansur also guaranteed that games like "aviãozinho" and "tigrinho" will not be regulated, as they do not fit into fixed-odds betting—when the prize amount in case of a winning bet is known.
In the "aviãozinho" game, there was no predetermined prize. The value of the prize increased according to the height of the plane's flight. It was up to the bettor to decide when to stop and access their profit. If, however, before that, the word "crashed" appeared, the bet would be lost.
Over 130 companies have shown interest
More than 130 companies have already expressed interest in the Brazilian market, a number above the Treasury's expectations. They will have priority in the analysis of documentation and release of activities. About 298 sites have already been identified operating in the country, but more than one domain may belong to the same company.
Of the total companies interested in the Brazilian betting market, 44 are based in tax havens, and 64 are Brazilian. The regulation of the betting market will favor the arrival of large international houses.
The list includes large companies such as MGM Resorts, based in Las Vegas, United States, and other houses from the United Kingdom, China, France, Portugal, as well as a large number of companies based in tax havens.
The Prizes and Betting Secretariat has not yet been officially created by the Treasury, but this does not prevent the authorization and taxation of companies from starting after the publication of the ordinance. The idea is that the department has 38 positions, fewer than the 56 previously requested by the Treasury from the Ministry of Management. Three subsecretaries will be part of the department: authorization, supervision, and sanction.
Source: O Globo
