According to market executives who did not wish to be identified, the betting companies underwent a thorough and extensive investigation by the Federal Government in the months leading up to the regulatory period, including the submission of data and documents from the main managers of these companies.
There were reports with more than a thousand pages for each of these betting companies, to give an idea.
In addition, executives who work in the sector understand that it is at least strange to request the breaking of confidentiality of all 78 betting houses authorized to operate in the country, and that such a movement did not occur in such a broad, and even discriminatory, way with other sectors of the Brazilian economy.
"The CPI has the power to request the lifting of banking and tax secrecy of those under investigation. However, in order to do so, there must be evidence of irregularities that justify this act. The fact that they intend to request this from all authorized operators raises doubts about whether there is any indication of irregularity, or whether the CPI intends to break it precisely in order to investigate whether there would be any irregularity. Given the nature of the measure, requesting the lifting of secrecy without indicating irregularities is illegal," analyzes Raphael Paçó Barbieri, a lawyer specialized in sports law and partner at CCLA Advogados.
"It makes no sense to request the lifting of secrecy of betting houses. It is even more serious when it is found that the CPI and its senators are simply not interested in any relevant investigative measures against illegal betting that operates in the country," confirms Leonardo Henrique Roscoe Bessa, consultant to the Federal Council of the OAB and partner at Betlaw, a law firm specialized in the gaming and betting sector.
Senator Marcos Rogério submitted 97 requests in early December, and among the main requests are financial intelligence reports (RIFs) with “consistent information” on betting companies for the period from January 1, 2020 to December 10, 2024.
“In addition, all operators authorized by the government went through an extensive process to attest to the regularity and legitimacy of their operations. The investigation should focus on unlicensed betting companies that still operate in Brazil, on match-fixing gangs, and on money laundering by unsupervised companies,” adds Barbieri, from CCLA Advogados.
Source: GMB
