Starting an online casino in Brazil is among the most popular topics in online gaming today, because exactly these days the history of Brazilian gambling is being created. A lot can change in the positive way in the near future. If the proposed Laws 442/91 and 186/2014 regulating internet casinos, bingo, and lotteries are finally approved by the Chamber of Deputies, a new era for iGaming will start, opening vast opportunities to local and international operators.
Legal aspects
All types of land-based gambling in Brazil were banned in 1946 and numerous casinos were closed. Although nothing was said about Internet gambling in particular, it was presumed that online sites should fall under the general rules and regulations. There have been several attempts to ban online gambling on the governmental level. For instance, in 2010 the Brazilian congress tried to pass a bill prohibiting people in Brazil to make financial transactions at online gambling sites. In 2013, the Commission of Science, Technology, Innovation, Communication, and Computing even voted on law project which would ban online gambling in Brazil. However, this and several other law projects have failed so far.
Today, positive trends are evident. The Brazilian Gaming Congress (BgC) which took place in São Paulo in 2016 showed how much local businesses and international investors anticipate a positive decision on the new gambling law projects. The country officials have estimated the potential volume of profit that the country could get from legalizing gambling and proposed a set of laws to regulate this industry. The laws should define the licensing process, casino taxation and operation rules for both, land-based and online business. With this regulation in place, international operators will hopefully have an opportunity to run legal online casinos in Brazil and accept local players.
Market
With the population of 210 million, 57% internet penetration rate, and the historic love of local citizens to various games of chance, the Brazilian online gambling market is very attractive to international operators. Although legalization of online gambling is still under question and local players officially are not allowed to participate in online gambling, the government lacks resources to control and prevent this type of gambling and players from the country have free access to international websites. Internet gaming market in Brazil is now estimated at $265 million, with more than 300 of local websites working with both USD and Brazilian Real and serving Portuguese-speaking players. 186 of those are online casinos.
According to the latest estimates, legalized gambling will be raising $17 billion a year, and online casinos will make a significant share of this volume (illegal online gambling reportedly gathers $6 billion annually).
Currencies and Bitcoin
While the national currency in Brazil is real, it is a good idea to have it alongside USD as a payment option at an online casino.
Even more attractive, however, is to offer payments in Bitcoin. Bitcoin has seen unprecedented growth in the last months in Brazil. According to the report by a reputable information resource BitValor, bitcoin trading at Brazilian cryptocurrency exchanges during the first half of 2016 reached 47 million USD, while the gold trading was 44 million USD in the same period (7 percent less).
Another factor that plays in favour of Bitcoin is that the time of credit and debit card processing at Brazilian banks could be extremely long and it may take up to 28 days for a transaction, compared to just a couple of days in other countries.
This means people are eager to make bets in Bitcoin and it shall be there among credit card payments and other standard online casino payment services, such as Skrill and Neteller.
Languages
English as an international online casino language is good to start with, but consider having a website version in Portuguese to target as many local players in Brazil as possible.
Software
The software for an online casino targeting Brazilian players shall meet several important requirements besides the regular ones such as security, simple and flexible administration, effective affiliate management system, bonuses, etc. These are multi-language support and Bitcoin payment functionality, if you are to attain an advantage over your competitors.
SoftSwiss casino platform meets the above requirements and with its vast experience in safe Bitcoin payment processing, and is eager to offer their support in English or Spanish to legal online casinos starting their way on the Brazilian market.
Games
Brazilians love the game of chance in all of its varieties, from sports betting, lottery and bingo to the famous Jogo do Bicho. In the online casino, their preferences do not differ much from those of international players. Slots take the first place, followed by the card games and roulettes. The more games by world known content providers a casino features, the more player interests it serves, the better its chances for success are. With the vast choice of our own top-class games and a pool of 15 game providers, SoftSwiss can serve the interests of the most demanding players in Brazil.
Marketing
Since online gaming is still in the grey zone, open marketing methods such as Google Ads or TV promotion haven’t been an option so far. If the anticipated law projects are accepted and online gaming websites in Brazil are made legal, these opportunities will open up and make casino promotion easier. For now, an effective marketing strategy includes building affiliate network, placing info on the casino in the reputable online resources, pay per click campaigns, and SEO.
All in all, it is certain that the iGaming market in Brazil is very promising in its recent development, which makes Brazil an attractive option for existing or prospective online casino operators.
Related materials:
How to start an online casino with SoftSwiss software
