One of the main arguments of both the Bill and the CDR opinion is the temporality of the ban on “fortune” activities. At the beginning of the 1940s, under the aegis of a dictatorial regime - the Estado Novo, commanded by Getúlio Vargas -, Decree-Law 3,688 provided for “simple imprisonment” in “open or semi-open regime” for those caught in the contravention of the games of chance. After a brief period in force, the 1941 legislation again gained momentum after the fall of Vargas.
As soon as he took office, the former War Minister of the deposed autocrat, General Eurico Gaspar Dutra, issued Decree-Law 9.215, under the pretext that the fight against gambling “is an imperative of universal conscience” and taking advantage of the bureaucratic loophole licenses and concessions issued "for the practice and exploitation of games of chance (...)", which were "given on a precarious basis", threw the activity back into the dark. For Senator Ângelo Coronel, draftsman of the CDR's opinion, the ban on gambling is a “false morality.”
According to him, besides being hypocritical, it causes tax losses for the country. "This legislative blindness (...) makes money from the activity in Brazil used to finance organized crime," writes the parliamentarian.
Revenues
Coronel also cites a 2017 survey by the Brazilian Legal Game Institute (IJL), which points to revenues of almost R$20 billion (US$3.6b) in the sector that year, including the ‘jogo do bicho’, bingos, slots and online bets.
This legislative blindness has an even more devastating effect: it makes money from games of chance in Brazil generally used to finance organized crime. According to the IJL, the ‘jogo do bicho’ in 2017 generated R$ 12 billion (US$2.15b), bingos R$1.3 billion (US$230k), slot machines R$3.6 billion (US$642k) and internet betting R$3 billion (US$535k). Therefore, even if not legalized, gambling and lotteries outside the state monopoly reached almost R$20 billion (US$3.6b) in revenue in 2017.
In addition to voting for the approval of the project in the Senate committee, Ângelo Coronel defended that the collection with the sector's regulation should be directed to the Citizen Income program, a project of the Bolsonaro government that does not yet have a budget source to be presented. According to the senator, it would be about R$ 50 billion (US$8.9b) annually with taxes on gambling alone.
In addition to the favorable opinion in the CDR, the Rocha’s Bill needs the approval of the Economic Affairs Commissions (CAE) and Constitution and Justice (CCJ) to go to the House plenary. If approved, the project will be evaluated by the Chamber of Deputies. If rejected, it can only be evaluated again in the next legislature.
Source: Jornal de Brasília
