Gambling is all that depends on luck and that the individual cannot interfere with the outcome. Criminal offenses involve such activities, but some are released by law, such as the lottery, so it is not considered a criminal offense, according to criminal lawyer Henrique Abi-Ackel Torres of the Institute of Criminal Sciences.
The popular Brazilian game jogo do bicho is something that has always occurred, even being prohibited. “It is funny that it is was born in an official way. Its story is that a zoo manager needed money to move around and began offering a ticket each week with the name and number of the animals he was drawing. The staff came to the place in search of the prize. Then the activity spread. It has become difficult to control because it is something that comes from Rio's history, it is cultural. It is born in a very naive way, but unfortunately organized crime has appropriated it,” said Judge Doorgal Andrada of the 4th TJMG Criminal Chamber.
In the 1930s, this activity was placed as a contravention. "The state can often better regulate conduct when it regulates it rather than simply prohibiting it," said Henrique. Legalizing, the state would have much more control and would not drop into the hands of organized crime. "The penalty for a contravention is too small, so the police themselves are not motivated by so many problems to prosecute someone specifically for a conduct like it. If they can get a large organization behind them, then there is encouragement," Doorgal added.
Until the 1950s, gaming was allowed in Brazil until then President, Eurico Gaspar Dutra, was against and banned them through the cancellation of licenses and concessions. “Although it was a moral issue, because it makes a lot of people addicted, the casino industry is moving very interesting money, which can be brought to the official level. I welcome regulation of gaming so that the state can have more control over the situation. You can get this money out of illegality and conduct like money laundering and similar,” said Henrique.
“There are casinos in several parts of the world and that not make them worse than Brazil. There are in the United States, Uruguay, Portugal, France, Spain, Canada… Does the fact that we do not have a casino here makes the country less corrupt? This argument that the casino will destroy the country is a bit of an exaggeration,” questioned Doorgal.
Regarding online poker, both interviewed find it extremely complicated to control. Although this game is not considered a games of chance, there is no way to prohibit the population from using the internet for such activities. “Even in a crime committed on the Internet, we doubt where it was committed, whose competence, where it was the result… These are challenging issues for modern criminal law. This is still a little gray zone. In my opinion, it is absolutely impossible to have complete control over whether a citizen will play poker on a website in a particular country or another,” concluded Henrique.
Source: GMB
