For Lummertz, his position on the subject converges on a personal and political level and that the government maintains a strategic position to support the implementation of casinos in resorts within the State of São Paulo. According to Lummertz, this subject has been discussed between the governor João Dória (PSDB), he and the council of secretaries.
"The governor has moved in line with our strategy to support the development of casinos at integrated resorts for a number of reasons. First, because of the size of the investments, we are talking about investments of R$ 1 (US$ 270m) to R$ 6 billion (US$ 1.6bn) from each of these investments," he quantified.
According to the secretary, it is the government's understanding that these ventures should generate a hotel demand beyond that projected by the enterprise itself. And he cites an example: "The case of Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, where tourism has gone from 9 million to 17 million tourists because of this venture, a complex that integrates entertainment, lodging, shopping and casino. Gaming is a part of it," he told to the newspaper.
Play the game
And to play the game, in the words of the secretary, it is necessary to develop congress tourism, events, arts and logically business. He recalled a time when casino existed in Brazil: (exploration of games of chance was allowed in Brazil until 1946. The last roulette game in the country was held in the casino of the Hotel Copacabana Palace on April 30, 1946 * Editor’s Note).
"And in Brazil it was like that, the bases of a great part of the cultural movements that appeared in the cinema and the Brazilian television passed by the casino of Urca in the decade of 40, in the shows of Teatro de Revista, that everything was the base of the Tupi TV, who was physically next to the casino and then to media giant Globo," he recalled.
For Lummertz this set of forces that tourism promotes, among them events, congresses, shows, generates a large volume of people, and on the other hand, it also cure another problem, which is illegal gambling. "In a planned and well-implemented way, part of the problem of illegal gambling and the evasion of Brazilian resources can be reduced. Brazilians travel abroad to play when they could be doing it here," he said.
However, Vinícius makes it clear that he is not in favor of a generalized opening for all games of chance and that it is needed to separate the discussions.
Decentralized vision
Asked about the more liberal position of Economy Minister Paulo Guedes, who understands the return of casinos as an instrument of economic development, a position that is not in line with that of President Jair Bolsonaro, Lummertz said that there is a discussion in the Federal Supreme Court on the legality and the chance to give states the power to decide on the gaming issue.
"There is a discussion in the Federal Supreme Court about this. A judgment that occurs on this issue of whether or not the states have direct interference. The premise is that we would need approval in Congress, there is a legal analysis, but there is already a discussion in the Supreme. My position, already presented to hotel operators in Rio de Janeiro and Belo Horizonte is exactly this: to allow gaming, casinos in integrated resorts and delegate to the states, and on their behalf to municipalities for a wider scale" he said.
According to Lummertz the state or municipal legislation is an inductor for the refinement of the popular will and for the debate. "A society, a community, may not want in its municipality or state these activities because of ideology or religious rigor." According to the secretary, based on the experiences of each state, the implementation or not of the casinos could be taken case by case and from regional decisions. "This is how it works in the United States, that has a strong federation, but the states are sovereign," he said.
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* Editor's note
In April 2016, the STF began to judge RE 966,177 in which the Public Prosecution Service of Rio Grande do Sul questioned a judgment of the second instance that considered "atypical" the conduct of gambling as a criminal contravention, "in view of the principles constitutional provisions."
Minister Luiz Fux, rapporteur of RE 966,177, proposed that the appeal should be judged by the Court with the "stamp" of general repercussion, a suggestion that was approved by the virtual plenary in November 2016. However, the trial was interrupted in June 2017.
In the Federal Senate, PLS 186/14 and, in the Chamber of Deputies, PL 442/91 are ready to be examined by the plenary of the two Houses. In addition, a possibility arose in March of last year with the possibility of including casinos-resorts in projects PL 2724/2015, PL 7425/2017 and PL 7413/2017, which form the "Brasil Mais Turismo"(‘Moe Tourism for Brazil’) proposal.
Source: GMB / Diario do Turismo
