Can Brazil legalize Land-Based Gaming in 2025?

Brazil’s gambling landscape entered a new era on January 1st, 2023, with the official launch of its legal online betting market. The move was met with considerable optimism, positioning Brazil as a potential global powerhouse in digital gambling. With online license fees exceeding BRL2 billion (roughly £272 million), the country is already reaping significant economic benefits from this newly regulated sector. However, the country’s journey toward legalizing land-based casinos remains a contentious issue, delayed by political opposition and regulatory hurdles.

Despite the successful launch of online betting, Brazil’s efforts to legalize land-based gambling—casinos, bingo halls, and betting on horse racing—have faced similar delays. Last June, the Justice and Citizenship Committee approved PL 2,234/2022, a bill seeking to regulate land-based gaming activities. However, the bill’s subsequent passage through the Senate has been repeatedly postponed, leading some to question whether the momentum toward legalization will ever materialize.

The political landscape shifted in February 2023 when pro-gambling senator Davi Alcolumbre was appointed Senate President, providing new hope for those in favor of land-based legalization. Alcolumbre’s appointment is seen as a positive step forward by many in the industry, including Alex Pariente, Senior Vice President of Casino and Hotel Operations at Hard Rock International. Pariente believes Alcolumbre’s experience and understanding of the importance of land-based entertainment will help push the bill across the finish line. “There’s good dialogue, there’s good collaboration,” Pariente explains. “I think we have good sentiment towards advancing with this.”

However, some experts remain skeptical. Ari Celia, Director at Brazilian payments company Pay4Fun, expressed cautious optimism, acknowledging that while the bill may be considered in the first half of 2025, the political nature of the process could still cause delays. “It’s politics. It may take longer,” Celia notes.

A Change in Mindset for Land-Based Gambling

Brazil has a long history of gambling prohibition. Gambling was outlawed in 1946, and while bingo was briefly legalized in the early 2000s, other efforts to regulate land-based gambling have failed over the years. This makes the current attempt to legalize casinos and other land-based gaming activities a pivotal moment in the country’s gambling evolution.

Hugo Baungartner, Chief Commercial Officer at local operator Aposta Ganha, who has witnessed Brazil’s past attempts to regulate land-based gambling, believes that the launch of the legal online betting market marks a critical shift in public and political attitudes. “People are different, people understand. People travel the world and they see everything. So I think the online regulation also will help politicians understand that the government has the powerful tools to control everything,” Baungartner says.

Yet, even without formal regulation, land-based gambling remains prevalent in Brazil, with illegal games like jogo do bicho (the “animal game”) thriving in the shadows of federal law. This widespread illegal activity highlights the need for regulation, as unregulated gambling lacks safeguards against money laundering and consumer protection.

Tourism and Economic Growth

Beyond the potential for enhanced regulation and consumer protection, land-based gambling holds significant promise for Brazil’s economy, particularly its struggling tourism sector. While Brazil attracts millions of tourists each year, it lags behind smaller countries like the Dominican Republic in visitor numbers. The introduction of legal land-based casinos could act as a key driver for tourism growth.

Pariente emphasizes the potential of integrated resorts to rejuvenate the country’s tourism industry. “Building an integrated resort that could be a destination for tourists from the region and internationally could be very useful to pursue the government goal, which is to increase tourism,” he says. Such developments could also generate jobs and substantial investments, further boosting Brazil's economic outlook.

Similarly, Celia believes that integrating land-based gambling with Brazil's existing tourism hotspots—such as Rio de Janeiro, the Amazon rainforest, and the northeast’s picturesque beaches—could provide a much-needed economic boost. “Brazil has many places that can be improved with gaming,” he says, adding that legal gambling would stimulate the broader economy.

The legal online betting market, which launched in January 2023, may be an influential factor in the momentum toward land-based gambling legalization. Despite challenges and public resistance, the online sector has stabilized, offering lessons for future land-based regulation. The controversies surrounding online gambling regulation, including a Supreme Federal Court hearing in November 2023 regarding the constitutionality of the online betting laws, have quieted since the beginning of the year. This suggests that the discourse surrounding online betting may have a calming effect on the broader gambling conversation, potentially paving the way for land-based casinos.

Baungartner, however, cautions that Brazil is an “outlier” in regulating online gambling before its land-based counterpart. While the early success of online betting is promising, the broader issue of land-based gambling regulation remains a political challenge.

The Road Ahead

Despite the delays and setbacks, both Baungartner and Pariente remain optimistic that land-based gambling will be legalized in Brazil in 2025. Minister of Tourism Celso Sabino has previously indicated that the Senate may vote on the bill in the first half of the year, with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva expected to sign the legislation into law once it passes.

For Hard Rock, a global casino giant, the opportunity to enter Brazil’s burgeoning land-based market is a key priority. Pariente affirms that the company is prepared to move quickly once the legal framework is solidified. “Having a solid legal framework, very sound regulation, and the feasibility of the project will be key,” he says.

Pariente also stresses the importance of learning from Brazil's online regulation process to avoid the grey market issues that plagued the digital sector. “All these grey area issues that we experienced on the digital end are something that we could probably avoid” in the land-based gambling process, he notes.

Building an integrated resort that could be a destination for tourists from the region and internationally could be very useful to pursue the government goal, which is to increase tourism.

Cautious Optimism for The Future

The general sentiment within the gambling industry is that Brazil will likely legalize land-based gambling in 2025. Thanks to the pro-gambling shift in the Senate and the success of the online betting market, the country is moving closer to a more comprehensive regulatory framework. Despite the uncertainties and political hurdles, the momentum for land-based legalization is building, and Brazil’s tourism and economy stand to benefit greatly from this long-anticipated shift in policy.

As the country nears a potential turning point in its gambling history, the legalization of land-based casinos could solidify Brazil’s place as a global betting powerhouse, both online and offline.