iGaming Daily

After just a few months since Brazil fully enforced its regulated market, there's still a lot of work to do and that's what we will discuss in today's episode of I Gaming Daily. Welcome everybody. I'm Fernando not media manager for SBC and today to speak about Brazil. Of course, I'm joined by Ricardo Ais, editor of SBC Noticas Brazil. Ricardo, how are you today?
Hello fairy happy to be here and very happy with the how the lat American clubs are doing in the club world cup despite Boka Juniors but let's not talk about it.
It's okay. It's okay. I I I'm not sure what you are talking about. There's a club world cup going on. That sure doesn't ring a bell to me. But let me welcome Elisa Maranti, business journalist for SBC notes Brazil who also be joining us today. Ellie, how are you?
Hi fair, thank you. I'm okay. All good here and happy to be here again.
Yeah, we are going through some seriously cold weather in the South American, the southern corn cone and uh not the corn. Uh but uh yeah, I'll have some popcorn if you have some. Um but yeah, Brazil is going through a lot. So, we have a lot to cover today. Nothing about any club world cup or that that's the stuff Ricardo mentioned. Even though I am very excited about the tournament, jokes aside, uh I think I think it's a a great thing, but it that we'll leave that for a different day because today we have to discuss a lot of stuff that's going on in Brazil. But first, let me thank Optim, the number one SER marketing solution for the I gaming market and sponsor of I Gaming Daily. Now, on to the uh news in Brazil. If you haven't read them, that's because you have not subscribed yet to SBC notes Brazil newsletter. So, please do subscribe to SBC Brazil newsletter if you want to be up to date with everything going on in Brazil uh in the i gaming and sports betting industries. But one thing we have seen in the global regulated uh gaming industry is that you may have a regulation in place like Brazil does Brazil has enforced like we said their their their gaming legislation has been enforced fully since January the 1st. But if you don't actually enforce the rules that you have set you might Anyway, with the with the development and the and how the industry works and it looks right now Brazil is going through some issues with its regulatory entities. Ellie,
yes, it's true. Unfortunately, Carlos Bgoi, the president of the Brazilian National Telecommunications Agency, also known as Anatel, uh he said they don't have the resource to combat the illegal market and the actor needs to be expanded. to achieve the desired results. Uh so in January of this year the anatel took down around 15,000 illegal platforms with the help of UNESCO UNESCO supported tool and this year later this year we are going to have they are going to have a public hiring process and it would only add 15 member uh 15 new me staff members and this for this by God he said it will require an additional of 23 million he eyes every year in the budget. So he said they need the money, they need people and they don't know how many of these future hires will be assigned for the to the batting oversight and the agency may need more uh partnerships because they already have one with the government u because they already have a partnership with the the government but they need they might need more. He also said Brazil's betting regulation model is attacking institutional uh experture he mentioned the there is a single secretary SBA of the ministry of finance who makes all the decisions autonomously uh so yeah we are having uh this problem now to combat the illegal market because we don't have people we don't have money and we don't know what's going to happen but how it's now they don't have the res enough resource to combat the illegal platforms
yeah and uh this news was received quite negatively by the market because at the same time that the government approved a 50% increase in the GGR tax uh it also cut spending on tools that protect the legal market and the blocking is not uh 100% effective as many operators have already pointed out but this is uh an important part of the enforcement and the trend is if nothing is done is that we going to see an increase in the illegal market over the coming months. This is quite concerning because we are currently around 50% of the market already being dominated by the unlicensed operators. So this is something that's raising some eyebrows here in Brazil.
Yeah, but still um of course there's going to be struggles. Of course there's going to be trouble, but um Brazil still has some recent good news for this um dispute between the licensed versus unlicensed operators because Google has adapted its policies. to the new regulation of the country.
Yay. Yes, I'm really happy about this. U it seems now we'll be able to to download the to download sports books apps at the play store, you know, since I joined the company since I joined the industry. Actually, I I was waiting for this moment because it makes a difference. So, following the the pressure from sports betting operators and even the government, Google has changed uh changed its store policy to allow betting uh and online games online gaming apps in Brazil. So the SBI uh uh justified the this that these apps would help to combat the illegal operators to the illegal websites platforms to operate in the country. So it's a good thing and it might help us with the almost 50% of illegal brands operating in Brazil right now.
And it also probably makes it easier for users. Like the user experience is much different when you have an an app you can bet from. You can download and and bet from from the app directly instead of having to use like the web browser version that usually they have. I mean there's great um IT people working on the industry in the industry but still those apps tend to have like some limitations but apps make it much much more like uh easy to to to play on. But um you mentioned that this would help u the regulated versus unlicensed market. What do you think about uh this?
Yeah. Uh this is something that the operators have been calling for quite some time and I believe it's it could have a very positive impact in the legal market as a whole. The spectation uh as Elisa told is that with the release of the betting apps that the market will be channelneled toward the license applications. This it will also make it easier to identify which operators are legal because Google uh has also established that uh that that is required a proof of the license to to place the app in the store. So the common practice of placing a direct download link on the website should start to fall out out of use in the in the next months. Uh I think this is very positive and it's bring because it brings way more security to both betterers and operators. Now what's missing is getting Apple to follow the same path. But I think this is already a really good start.
Yeah, I definitely agree because um you need to have these things very clear from the get-go to so people don't make the mistake because a lot of time people bet on unlicensed un unlicensed websites because they don't know these are unlicensed like many brands are very popular and decide not to get a license not to pay for for for tax. is for the the license fee and everything and they they are popular anyway and so people say hey I saw this ad on some website I visited and so I'm going to go ahead and embed on in there on there and um and they don't know they are doing it in an unlicensed website that's not paying taxes that's not employing Brazilians for example as many companies are so I think it's very important to to have everything very clearly So the the the users are the ones that understand which companies are the ones that are actually contributing back to society uh when they play. Yeah. Uh there there are some operators that are well known in the global market to just operate in the gray market. Uh they come to operate in markets that are not regulated or they that are preparing to regulate and before the regulation they go to advertise and create a brand identity and when the regulation starts they do not apply and I think this kind of measurement is really important to to hurt this kind of companies that try to do this kind of stuff.
Definitely definitely
and also the the some people they just don't get it the difference between the legal and the illegal uh platforms. When I talk to people and they they say they they they bet in like unlicensed uh sports book in Brazil, I tell them like this is not a legitimate a legitimate website and they say I don't care they are paying or I don't care it's their problem if I'm playing it's good for me doesn't matter if it's legal illegal they don't care so they don't understand how it works the market sometimes
yeah they don't understand that if they are playing in a illegal website and something goes wrong they do not have who to to to put responsible for it they don't have anyone to protect them so they they can be paying for now, but we don't know if they're continue to be paying. So, this is really something that can hurt the betters.
One needs to win while others 5 10 are losing. So,
Exactly. Yeah, definitely. And there's definitely work to be done there by the regulators like we said, you can have the regulation, but if you don't enforce it, if you don't h have the the the the state forces to to like actually go against the illegal operators and at the same time protect both the consumer and those companies that are paying the tax money to to contribute back to society. Um there's not much point in there's not a point in having regulation anyway if you're not making it like making the companies go by it. So definitely a lot to consider by the Brazilian Brazilian authorities. But for now we'll going we're going to do a quick outbreak because there's more to Latam than just Brazil. So uh this is a farewell for Ricardo Asis and Alisa Maranchid. Thank you very much for being uh in the episode and uh we're going to do a quick ad break and be right back with some more news in the Latin on the Latin American market. And we're back with I Gaming Daily. Thanks for waiting because now we have to talk about the rest of Latin America outside Brazil. And for that we have now on Lucy Aando aka the boss SVC noticia's editor. Lou, how are you?
Hello F. Glad to have you back. I hope your voice is better and you enjoyed the little trip to somewhere we don't know.
Yeah. Yeah. Somewhere we don't know. Aka uh watching Boke up play the club world cup. Uh something that Damian Martinez SBC Jantisia's business journalist can say because he's a San Loren fan unfortunately but uh Dami still glad to have you here. How are you?
Hi Far all is good here. It's good to have you back and next World Cup we will be there.
Okay, I'll take I'll take that as a pro. promise. But uh now on to the information onto the news that you might have already read if you are subscribed to SBC Noticia's newsletter. And if not, please do so because you don't want to miss anything going on in the Latin American uh gaming landscape. But um to just dive into it, uh the Dominican Republic is pushing a new bill to improve its capacity to raise taxes uh through the gaming industry. So what does this mean, Lou?
Well, the Uh, as you said, the Dominican Republic has announced a new regulation. The aim is to improve the transparent gaming, the transparency of the gaming industry. Uh, but it also aims to um gain more income. The goal is to improve how gaming works in the country. It was published in the official government platform and aims to bring more order to the industry. So, So we have uh they will create the directory of finance but they will have more monitoring tools to to control illegal gaming and push for further punishment in case uh operators break the rules. Um the important part of the regulation is player protection but this will have consequences on the incomes they we are expecting because um more legal companies will be able to join the market and also uh the illegal competitors will be shut down. So this is a general uh landscape of what's going on in Dominican Republic.
And since I am subscribed to SBC Noia's newsletter, I was just reading that the Dominican lottery reacted to the to the bill and the the initiative by the government to push this bill. What where do they stand uh for our listener. Dami.
Yes, fair. The advisory council of Dominican Republic National Lottery expressed its support for the draft of the new gambling law submitted by the president Luis Abinader to the national congresses. Highlighting its importance in strengthening oversight and transparency procedures in the country's gaming sector. The organization expressed its satisfaction with the legislative proposal that creates that creates the general director of gambling like lucid as a new regulatory body. A letter signed by by all members of the adversary council states the fundamental objective of this initiative is to create better controls over gambling providing society with a true instrumental of control security transparency and with sufficient power to establish sanction for potential violations. Since its creation the candles has supported Louis Abinader's effort to establish institutional mechanisms to ensure greater oversight over the gambling industry. Also, they reinforce the need for legislators to take this proposal seriously because they say that it seeks to benefit society as a whole. And speaking of regulation, now let's um be alert on or let's pay attention to what happens in Dominican Republic. I won't say wait and see because I feel like that's a Brazil thing now. Uh but speaking of regulation, moving on. to Chile where a lack of specific regulation for the I gaming industry has sparked some issues some some struggles in uh the gaming industry. So uh Lou why don't you tell us uh what's going on in Chile and uh actually Boya Chilea had some saying in in in this struggle with uh I gaming unregulated I gaming and and and all that stuff with the regulation not being there.
Uh well the poy chileno or Chilea as we say in Argentina uh it's the state lottery company in Chile and has lost a big part of its value in the past 5 years or so. Uh they published an official statement where they say that the company's value dropped by 33 33% between 2018 and 2024. Uh they stated that this is a serious concern especially because the company supports public health programs with its profits. So they justify this drop in uh because of the rise of online betting platforms. They are against online betting as it is right now in Chile that uh we know that they don't have an official framework. Uh so the the market is not fully regulated but is fully operating. Um the PCA Chilena says this PL of this platforms are uh attracting many users and affect the traditional lottery games. Uh they are only able to to operate lottery games so far. So they are waiting for the government to approve the new regulation uh to include online gaming and sports betting in their official offerings. Right. And the company's general manager Rodrigo Gardinas has said that the competition from these platforms is unfair. He explained that online betting companies work under different rules and do not pay the same taxes and this creates an uneven situation for legal companies like Poya. Uh like I mentioned, it's a state company. So Chile in general is losing with uh this lack of regulation.
Yeah, Poya Chile is actually one of the few companies that's actually of course it's a stateowned company, but it's the one that the few one of the few sorry that's expressly authorized to offer games through the internet. So that's why they have filed some some lawsuits against internet providers to block all these unlicensed companies because there's not a license to apply for anyway. So uh definitely a need to push for regulation in Chile. So those lawsuits go somewhere and because if you don't have any law to like enforce to these companies, it doesn't really make any sense to to to file these lawsuits. But Dami, where are we right now very briefly with uh regulation in Chile? Well, far that's a complicated situation. You know, the the government is making a slow progress in creating a legal framework. In 2024, the Senate Economics Commission approved a bill proposing to regulate online gambling through authorizations granted by the superintendency of casinos, which is the regulator body. However, the Lechil ative debate has not seen much progress since then. For its part, the the Chile's regulator stated a few weeks ago that at this time online gambling platforms are illegal. Nevertheless, last April, the Chilean justice decided to dismiss a criminal case against online gambling operators brought by the state lottery, the Posh Chilena, and land-based casinos. In her ruling, the judge the judge in charge of the case argued that there's no specific spefic law declaring these activities illegal and therefore it was not appropriate to pursue criminal proceedings. Despite the controversy and lack of a specific regulation for online gambling, the market continues to operate and grow. According to a report, more than 3,800 active platforms were registered in Chile in 2024. Yeah, there's definitely a lot of work to do in Chile, but like we said before in this podcast, uh it's highly unlikely that it will actually make any progress this year. here because there's a general election, presidential election coming up. So all focus in the politics is all focus on in politics is pushed has pushed to that side and probably law makingaking is going to be a bit slow. Um and of course the gaming industry is on a very relegated um plane in terms of what's important or not for uh for the country even though it will generate a lot of money like we already read on SBC noticius and you can read as well if you subscribe to SBC notices lucy letter so don't forget to do that but that's all for today thank you very much Lou Dami thank you very much to the Brazil team also in the first half of this episode thank you very much Ana Macdonald for producing this episode to all listeners out there we'll see you in the next one