ANJL goes to court in Brazil over anti-betting supermarket association video
The National Association of Games and Lotteries (ANJL) has filed a lawsuit calling on the Brazilian Association of Supermarkets (ABRAS) to explain the origin of information included in a video on its social media criticising betting.
On Monday, the ANJL hit out at ABRAS’ video, titled “History of Bets”, which linked the regulated betting sector to food insecurity in Brazil.
In the video, ABRAS makes claims that every Brazilian real spent on betting leads to “one less dish on the table” and a “bill that is late”, with the retail sector allegedly missing out on BRL103 billion ($18.7 million) in revenue last year due to gambling.
However, the ANJL responded by highlighting official data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics that instead showed the retail sector recorded growth of 4.7% in the last year.
In the ANJL’s view, the video goes beyond “criticism of specific agents and affects the sector as a whole”.
ANJL President Plínio Lemos Jorge said: “The retail sector has decided to choose someone to blame for the rise in food prices on families’ tables. And, in their opinion, betting companies are responsible.
“This is absurd, because it spreads fake news that aims to attack a legitimate sector of the economy, which will generate more than BRL4 billion in taxes this year alone. Reducing the country’s budgetary issues to the regulated betting market is irresponsible and simplistic.”
ANJL takes aim at ‘silent predator’ claim
Additionally, the ANJL took exception to the labelling of online gambling as a “silent predator”, accusing the video of being offensive and including a “tone of misinformation”.
The ANJL believes the video fails to differentiate properly between licensed betting operators and their illegal counterparts, which divert billions of reals away from public revenue in Brazil.
“Nobody came in stealthily, as the video says,” Lemos Jorge continued. “The names of the legalised houses are public and can be consulted by anyone on the federal government websites, which also publishes information every time a betting company is authorised to operate in the country.
“ABRAS may be against the betting sector, but it cannot disseminate false information.”
Focus on 12% Brazil betting tax also challenged
The ABRAS video also states operators only pay 12% in tax, claiming the retail sector’s tax burden is unfair in comparison.
“It makes no sense for a betting game to pay less tax than you pay to eat,” the video says.
In response, the ANJL called the 12% tax figure an “erroneously mentioned fact”, highlighting this figure is only on gross gaming revenue. It said that when combined with other taxes such as PIS/Cofins and municipal contributions, the effective tax rate is around 38%.
This is set to increase, too, with the government publishing a provisional measure last week that raises the tax rate on GGR to 18%, a 50% hike.
While the provisional measure is effective immediately, Brazilian law states the contributions will only be collected from 90 days after its publication on 11 June.
The Senate and Chamber of Deputies will have 120 days from the measure’s publication to vote on whether to make the tax increase permanent.