The Ministry of Finance shall be responsible for authorizing and granting lotteries and shall regulate the activity within a period of two years, extendable for the same period, as of the date of publication of the law. Some people see the measure with reservations. After all, betting is a fertile ground for manipulating results. And the so-called "country of football" is far from exemplary in the fight against corruption.
The fear is justified. In the last decades, Brazil has coexisted with scandals involving football and bookmakers. The journalist Juca Kfouri lived this reality closely in the 1980s, when he was editor of the magazine Placar. And he was a fundamental character so that famous case of the "Mafia of the Sport Lottery" came to surface through denunciation of the media he managed.
Today, Kfouri believes it is useless to bar the entry of gaming companies, although admits apprehension with the release. "There is no longer any way to avoid it. In the globalized world, it is no use for you to prohibit it because it is done on the internet, so at least it is a way of collecting some money for distribution, but there is no way to prevent it," he admits.
For the journalist from Pernambuco Lenivaldo Aragão, even with greater control mechanisms, to contain the manipulation of results in football is still the most arduous task.
"It is necessary to have an eye on the priest and another on the mass. With the advent of the internet, these international betting agencies were created, mainly in Asia. There were even cases of corruption in the lower divisions of São Paulo, which led the president of the Pernambuco Federation (STJD), Paulo Schmitt, to set up a commission to take care of this history in Pernambuco, to avoid this type of problem. FPF-PE was already attentive to these cases of corruption, especially in the basic divisions," he points out.
According to Lenivaldo Aragão, all care is little in relation to this theme. "The bets may even be a source of income for the clubs, perhaps. The fact that the FPF-PE president has taken these steps is an alert. The clubs must pay attention to this situation. The world is very complicated, with internet and social networks is easier to lose control," he says.
João Caixero, president of Santa Cruz in the 1970s and now director of the club (Tricolor), does not hide his distrust regarding bets. "I see this a little worried because bets have caused a lot of problems. Paraíba himself was one of the victims of this, with referee purchases and manipulation of results (last year). There must be a huge oversight, but I see with great concern the release of bets,"he said.
On the other hand, some argues that in practice, very little will actually change. This is because, even with the prohibition that was in force in the country until last year, approximately 500 sites based abroad receive bets from Brazilian Internet users. One sign of this is that Europe's biggest bookmakers have a choice of Portuguese pages. With the regulation, these companies will be authorized to legally exploit the activity in Brazil.
"The regulation of sports betting here needs to be smart and efficient, protecting the integrity of the sport, giving bettors security and creating a network of protection for vulnerable people," said to local media à Folha de S. Paulo Pedro Trengrouse, the lawyer responsible for the the theme approved in the National Congress. It is worth remembering that countries in Europe, such as France and Spain, have their state bodies for market surveillance.
Source: GMB / Folhape.com.br
