Brazil seeking UIGEA-like Gambling legislation
The US UIGEA is a gambling legislation which prohibits banks from processing payments from online casinos and online gambling. Now Brazil has introduced similar legislation, banning all online gambling payments in Brazil.
The legislation is already advancing in Brazilian legislature. Despite all the problems with the US law, Senator Magno Malta has been pressing his bill for more then a year, having it finally move to the Communications and Technology Committee. The bill proposes criminal penalties for payment processing companies like creditcard companies that process payments from lotteries, sports betting sites and online casino sites. Gambling is illegal in Brazil, but online casino gambling providers ignore the ban, which causes lawmakers to take action against online casino operators. Less problems are expected for Brazilian legislation than with US UIGEA. Gambling laws are very different, and federal law does not address illegal gambling with the exception of sports betting, defining what activities the UIGEA blocks payments for, has become a constant issue. Horse races and lotteries are exempted by the UIGEA, but these payments also get blocked, ensuring that foreign Internet casino operators cannot offer their services in the U.S. Brazil has a national prohibition on all forms of gambling, but it’s not clear how the laws would affect online gambling operators. The legislation which consists of the bill introduced by Senator Malta along with a companion bill by Senate president Baribaldi Alves Filho, would make it illegal to process online payments for any illegal gambling activity, as well as force ISP’s to censor internet by banning Brazilians from entering online gambling sites. Also criminal penalties of a maximum of 3 years can be dealt to offenders.
This entry was posted on Saturday, August 22nd, 2009 at 12:02 am and is filed under Casino News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
