SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazil’s lower house passed on Friday bills to tax online betting and establish a carbon market in the country, both part of a broader economic plan to increase government revenue and advance environment-friendly initiatives.
The betting bill, seen as key for the government to reach the goal of wiping out its fiscal deficit next year, will now go to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to be signed into law, while the carbon market bill still needs to be voted on by the Senate.
The betting legislation will impose taxes including a 12% revenue tax on online betting companies and 15% on the winnings paid to gamblers, and will also include regulation of the online gambling sector.
Sports bets were legalized in Brazil in 2018 but never regulated. Since then, dozens of betting firms including bet365, Betano and Betfair have aggressively expanded in the country.
“We are not increasing or reducing (gambling), we are trying to regulate and give the sector seriousness in order to avoid, for example, money laundering,” lower house Speaker Arthur Lira said.
The bill set to regulate the carbon market, meanwhile, is considered a crucial component of Lula’s ecological plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions and reduce companies’ impacts on the environment, while also increasing government revenue.
The bill puts a limit on greenhouse gas emissions for companies, with those that pollute the most required to offset their emissions by purchasing carbon credits. Agribusiness firms are exempt from the requirements.
(Reporting by Eduardo Simoes and Steven Grattan; Editing by Gabriel Araujo and Susan Fenton)
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