Brazilian deputies debate revenue and social cost of bets
Brazil's Chamber of Deputies' Finance and Taxation Committee brought together the Treasury, trade associations, and the gaming industry to discuss an issue that has become uncomfortable in Congress: how much the regulated online gambling sector is actually collecting and what social price the country is paying for the massification of the product. The hearing, convened by deputies Paulo Guedes and Marussa Boldrim, took place on Wednesday, May 20, and left more questions than answers.
Undersecretary Gustavo Andrade Manrique, from the Ministry of Finance, presented the official figures: R$ 9 billion (about US$ 1.8 billion) collected in 2025 from companies authorized by the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting (SPA), and another R$ 3.1 billion (US$ 620 million) until April 2026. He also revealed that an audit detected 22 companies with debts of R$ 111 million (US$ 22 million), regularized after the intervention of the Revenue Service. Manrique advocated for applying income tax on winnings at the time of payment, instead of annually, to prevent most bettors from being exempt because they are below the R$ 30,000 (US$ 6,000) threshold.
The most sensitive aspect came with the study presented by Fábio Bentes, chief economist of the National Confederation of Commerce (CNC), which linked the increase in gambling expenditure to an increase in severe family defaults. According to the study, for every 10 percent increase in gambling expenditure, severe default grows by 0.12 percentage points, with a negative impact of R$ 4 billion (US$ 800 million) on retail trade, equivalent to two Christmas campaigns. The CNC called for caution regarding the digital environment and defended the regulation of land-based gambling, such as casinos, due to their capacity to generate employment.
The industry responded with its own figures. Abrajogo president Witoldo Hendrich questioned the study's methodology and emphasized that the regulated market represents only half of the sports betting in Brazil, while the rest operates illegally. He pointed out that the average Return to Player is around 97 percent, meaning the real margin for sportsbooks would only be 3 percent. The guild's Director of Government Relations, Ana Bárbara, added that the sector's tax burden exceeds 32 percent, combining the specific 15 percent tax on bets plus PIS, COFINS, CSLL, and IRPJ, in addition to the municipal ISS.
The political debate was intense. Deputy Merlong Solano asked if the revenues effectively compensate for the increase in problem gambling, anxiety, and pressure on the Unified Health System, while Luiz Carlos Hauly called online gambling "a shame for Brazil" and announced a bill to eliminate it. Mauro Benevides requested consolidated official data and suggested prohibiting beneficiaries of the Desenrola program from betting for two years. Paulo Guedes closed the session with an uncomfortable fact: if Brazilians spend R$ 360 billion a year on betting, the collection should exceed R$ 40 billion, well above the R$ 9 billion declared. "We want to know whose error it is: if it comes from the government or if it is tax evasion," he stated.
The Brazilian discussion anticipates a debate that will reach the entire region. Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Mexico are measuring, with varying levels of regulatory maturity, the fiscal and social impact of online gambling. The signal from the Brazilian Congress is clear: when a market surpasses US$ 1 billion in annual revenue, governments want to understand what is happening with the other half of the business, what it costs the healthcare system, and how reliable the data reported by the industry is. Latin America is just entering that conversation.
Tags: Brazil, Brazilian Chamber of Deputies, online gambling regulation, Abrajogo, SPA, gambling taxation in Brazil, problem gambling in Brazil