The Senate of Brazil has “partially delayed” the Commission of Inquiry (CPI) investigations aimed at reviewing the laws, standards, and protections of the Bets regime.
The CPIs will serve as the Senate’s evaluation of Brazil’s fixed-odds and online gambling market under the Bets framework, scheduled to launch in 2025.
The Senate’s evaluation, assigned to the “CPI of Bets,” will examine the financial impact of online gambling on Brazilian citizens, communities, and family finances.
Additionally, the “CPI of Integrity” will assess the threats and exposure of Brazilian sports (professional and amateur) to gambling manipulation and fraud.
On Friday, the Senate confirmed it had delayed the CPI of Bets as it has yet to decide which Senators will work on the inquiry.
Senator Soraya Thronicke from Mato Grosso do Sul, who proposed the CPI to the Senate, will serve as the inquiry’s rapporteur but has not yet been assigned a team. Thronicke has been granted 130 days and a budget of R$ 110,000 ($19.250) to conduct the CPI’s evaluation of financial impacts.
However, concerns have been raised about the broad scope of the inquiry, which must assess the economic effects of the Bets market on family finances, debt, and individual exposure to financial risks, criminality, and money laundering.
The inquiry was authorized following “alarming findings” by the Central Bank of Brazil, which revealed that recipients of Bolsa Família, Brazil’s financial aid program for low-income families, spent BRL 3 billion ($530 million) on gambling, as tracked by the PIX payment system.
President Inácio Lula da Silva has warned Senators and Ministers that he would intervene and shut down the Bets market if it threatens welfare programs aimed at protecting Brazil’s poor and vulnerable, particularly the Bolsa Família fund.
In other matters, the Senate has extended the CPI of Integrity, led by Senator Jorge Kajuru (PSB-GO) as chair and Senator Romário (PL-RJ) as rapporteur.
The inquiry, which began in April, has now been extended until February 2025 to give Senators more time to investigate allegations and suspicions of match-fixing in Brazilian football, involving players, managers, and betting companies.
Senators Kajuru and Romário are leading the inquiry into the integrity and technical protections of Brazilian sports, following a criminal investigation into betting fraud that impacted Brazilian football in 2022 and 2023.
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