VIE 29 DE MARZO DE 2024 - 05:30hs.
Benedito de Lira, project rapporteur

"We are here trying to regularize an economic activity"

In his final considerations, the rapporteur of the proposal to regulate gaming in Brazil, senator Benedito de Lira, defended yesterday the approval of the text in the Senate’s Commission of Constitution and Justice (CCJ), which finally rejected it. 'I can not understand this. Ideological vision is one thing, religious vision is another, but here we are here trying to regulate an economic activity,' said de Lira.

In response to the negative arguments against the gambling industry presented, for example, by senators Roberto Requião (PMDB-PR) and Ronaldo Caiado (DEM-GO), Benedito de Lira supported in his presentation yesterday that establishing a regulatory framework for the gaming activity would help to deal with the problems that already exist in the clandestinity.

"Money laundering exists today, crime exists today, because everything is done on the sly. How do you defend yourself if you do not show your face to what is under the rug? I can not understand this. Ideological vision is one thing, religious vision is another, but here we are here trying to regulate an economic activity," Lira said.

He also insinuated that institutions like the Public Ministry are aware of clandestine gaming nowadays, but does not supervise the activity properly. De Lira also claimed that "nobody is forced to play". "Play who you want to do so," he said.

As a novelty, the rapporteur said that, in a possible vote in plenary, he would defend the hardening of the penalties originally envisaged in his opinion. The penalty for anyone exploiting any kind of gaming and breaking the rules of the law would be three to five years imprisonment. Fraud or adulteration would result in increased sentence from six months to two years of detention for 3 to 5 years imprisonment. Allowing minor playing would have increased penalty of holding from three months to a year to six months to two years.

In line with de Lira, senator Ciro Nogueira argued that the objective of the project is to guarantee more money to the public coffers, besides generating thousands of jobs. He also stated that there is a "smoke screen", as if gaming was no longer a reality. "Brazil today is one of the countries where we play the most in the world. The clandestine market moves about R$ 20 billion per year," he estimated.

Despite the contrary outcome of yesterday’s vote, the bill can still be voted in plenary if a senator enters with an application requesting this analysis. Meanwhile, the current options for a regulation of the activity are the projects of the new general tourism law, which may include casinos, and PL 442/1991, which deals with the regulatory framework of the activity, both being dealt with in the Chamber.

Source: GMB