The deadline for lawmakers to propose changes to Brazil's provisional measure (MP) banning betting closed with at least 97 amendments filed.
This is double of the total a week earlier. The cutoff was originally set for September, but Congress's leadership postponed it until after the election's first round, mentioning the "principle of full and equal participation of lawmakers in all legislative activities."
Party leaders are reportedly pushing to remove sports betting from the ban and to set a transition period for other segments, and many amendments follow that line, including refunding operators part of their licensing fees and letting football clubs keep betting advertising contracts for a transition period.
Deputies Marcos Braz, a former Flamengo football VP, Julio Lopes, Pedro Aihara Felipe Francischini and Julio Arcoverde, along with senators Marcos Pontes and Hiran Gonçalves, filed amendments to take sports betting out of the ban.
Braz submitted six, including up to two years for clubs to move away from betting sponsorships.
The path forward remains open.
Congressional leadership has yet to set a calendar or name the official and chair of the joint committee reviewing the text. The MP took effect immediately but could lapse after four months unless Congress votes on it within 120 days.
It covers all betting formats, including online casinos and fixed-odds sports betting.
Recently, industry associations reported more than 3,500 layoffs within two weeks of the ban, with former workers saying employers outside the sector are reluctant to hire them. Industry leaders also say the measure could be overturned by Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice Luiz Fux and that an amended ban is a real possibility.
Yesterday, São Paulo's Civil Police have arrested three suspects in an investigation into alleged illegal online betting, financial fraud and money laundering
