Online betting: Finance Ministry negotiates splitting revenue management with Sports Ministry.
The Ministry of Finance has opened negotiations with the Ministry of Sports to share the responsibility of distributing the funds collected from the taxation of online betting, primarily sports betting. Initially, when the project was proposed, the responsibility would have fallen solely on the Ministry of Finance. However, the Ministry of Sports entered the fray after Congressman André Fufuca (PP-MA), a figure from the centrist bloc, took over the portfolio. The government estimates revenue of approximately R$ 2 billion per year, but the amount could be higher.
With the agreement, the Finance Ministry proposes that the transfer of funds to sports entities and confederations be the responsibility of the Ministry of Sports. The text currently being processed in Congress foresees a tax rate of 18% on the revenue generated by these websites.
According to the Finance Ministry's proposal, approximately 6 percentage points of this total 18% would go directly to the Sports budget. This includes 4 percentage points belonging to the ministry itself and 2,63 percentage points for sports confederations and entities, excluding the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF).
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The allocation of funds to other areas, such as social security, education, tourism, and public safety, would remain under the control of Minister Fernando Haddad. In this way, the Finance Ministry would still manage at least 11,37 percentage points of the total amount won by betting houses.
Text being negotiated
This separation in the distribution of funds may be explicitly stated in the Senate report. The proposal is currently being processed by the House's Committee on Economic Affairs. Alternatively, responsibilities could also be defined in a decree published by the government after the proposal is approved.
The Chamber's proposal also removed the requirement for sports confederations to submit the use of resources for approval by the Ministry of Sports. This measure was in the government's initial draft.
In addition to taxing corporate revenues, the Chamber's bill provides for a 30% tax on prizes won by individual winners and establishes an initial grant of R$ 30 million to authorize websites to operate legally.
The rapporteur discusses the details of the text.
In the Senate, however, the bill's rapporteur, Angelo Coronel (PSD-BA), is expected to modify these figures. The amounts are still being debated, but senators are requesting a tax rate of approximately 12% on company revenue and 15% for the winners. The grant could remain at R$ 30 million, but with a duration of five years, not three as in the current text.
Coronel even considered different tax rates for sporting and non-sporting games. But Senate technicians concluded that this division would make it difficult to enforce the law. Angelo Coronel is expected to present his report next Tuesday, the 21st.
Furthermore, opposition senators, mainly the more conservative ones, have been pushing for non-sports online games to be removed from the bill. They believe that regulating these types of bets would be tantamount to legalizing gambling.
"There is pressure to ban other types of games, but we are still studying it," said Coronel.
According to the initial idea from the Ministry of Finance, monitoring the manipulation of sporting match results would also fall under the responsibility of the economic team. In the preliminary design of the National Secretariat for Prizes and Betting, the sub-secretariat for Integrity and Monitoring would have the surveillance systems for this function.
However, members of the economic team already acknowledge that this monitoring could also be transferred to the Ministry of Sport.
