Addressing London’s LIDE ‘Brazil Business Leaders’ Conference on 21 April, Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco underscored the fiscal importance of implementing a federal sports betting regime.

The legalisation of sports betting was branded as a key component of President Lula da Silva’s ‘revenue strategy’, which aims to raise “potentially over RL100bn [$20bn] in 2023”.

Pacheco revealed that the Senate plans to vote on a sweeping ‘Gambling Expansions Bill’ (442/1991) in May or June, which would legalise casinos, bingo halls, and online gaming across Brazil’s 26 federal states. The Bill is carried separately to the current ‘presidential decree’, which is tasked with implementing a federal regime to regulate and licence online sports betting.