The Attorney General of the State of Minas Gerais (AGE-MG) worked on the case, under the command of the Attorney General of the State, Sérgio Pessoa de Paula Castro, and in a concatenated action between the Attorney of the Lottery of the State of Minas Gerais, under the head of Robstaine do Nascimento Costa, and the Prosecutor's Office for Strategic Demands (PDE), with Chief Prosecutor Cássio Roberto dos Santos Andrade, and Area Coordinator Mário Eduardo Guimarães Nepomuceno Júnior, with the support of Chief Advisor Vanessa Saraiva de Abreu, at the Federal District Representation.
With this decision, supported by the oral arguments of Mário Eduardo Guimarães Nepomuceno Júnior, Minas Gerais will have the necessary legal security to continue operating the Loteria Mineira (LEMG), being able to innovate technologically and create other games and draws.
The Court upheld the Fundamental Precept Failure Arguments (ADPFs) 492 and 493 (filed by the former governor of Rio Luiz Pezão and the Lottery Association, respectively), to declare that Articles 1 and 32, caput and paragraph 1 Decree-Law 204/1967, which deal with the Union's exclusivity to operate lotteries, were not accepted by the 1988 Constitution.
Apeminas
The president of Apeminas, Célia Cunha Mello, highlighted the important role of the AGE in this decision of the Supreme Court. “Apeminas celebrates a relevant result arising from the precise performance of the attorneys of the State of Minas Gerais in the judgment of ADPFs 492 and 493, in the midst of which decided the STF that the exploration of lotteries is not exclusive to the Union, guaranteeing continuity to the locals of the Loteria Mineira, which represents an important source of revenue and is part of our local culture,” he emphasized.
Amicus Curiae
The State of Minas Gerais and Loteria Mineira joined the case, through ADPF 493, under the condition of amicus curiae, with the objective of supporting the decision. The Supreme Court accepted the thesis argued in a petition signed by the attorney general of the State, Sérgio Pessoa de Castro.
He emphasizes the importance of the Loteria Mineira as a source of revenue, to enable social projects and to foster public services. “In an important work by the AGE, crowned by brilliant oral argument from the State Attorney, Mário Eduardo Guimarães Nepomuceno Júnior, representing Minas and the other States, the STF has just guaranteed the continuity of the lottery exploitation by the States. Loteria Mineira is resurrected,” he said to the AGE website.
Also according to AGE, based on data from the State Secretariat of Finance, only in the period from January to September this year did LEMG raise R$ 10 million (US$ 1.75m).
This year, he informed, the lottery's resources have already enabled actions to combat and control the pandemic in the state. All this discussion about the Union's exclusivity or not in economic exploitation gained greater strength from 2017, when some administrative processes predicted the end of the economic exploitation of state lotteries, based also on the 1967 decree, State of Exception. "Parallel to this, there were several federal and state judicial decisions on the subject, until reaching the Supreme Court," explained Costa. According to him, the central point was to explain by A + B that the Union's private competence was to legislate and not to exploit.”
To support this thesis, the AGE had the support of the chief adviser of the Representation Advisory in the Federal District, Vanessa Saraiva de Abreu, who advised the attorneys on the rules of procedure in the Supreme Court, especially in relation to the standardization of sessions by videoconferences at that time of pandemic. It was also up to her to join the prosecutors to the National College of Attorneys General, in support of the preparation of the memorial that served as a subsidy for the magistrates.
Expectations
From this decision, informed Costa, Minas will no longer need to operate under the terms of Decree-Law 204/1967, which imposed restrictions not only in relation to the issuing of tickets, but also in relation to technological advances. “Now the State has ample freedom to operate and innovate,” he states, recalling, however, the need to create laws that allow the necessary changes, including new games.
Source: GMB
