Last week, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, son of the President of the Republic, met in Las Vegas, on a trip paid for by the Senate, with the authorities of the Las Vegas Sands Group.
For Fernando Costa, who monitors the movements in Congress in favor of gambling, there is a “great chance” for the topic to advance in the Chamber this year, especially where there is a project ready to be taken to the plenary.
“The battle will be hard. Gaming never comes alone. But the lobby is heavy, there is a lot of money involved,” said the lawyer.
The negotiations are being headed by deputies Elmar Nascimento (DEM) and Paulinho da Força (Solidarity). Flávio and Centrão leaders try to convince President Jair Bolsonaro and work to move projects forward this year.
Nascimento is the rapporteur of a project on the legalization of gambling in Brazil that is ready to be voted on in the plenary of the Chamber. He said that being against legalization is "hypocrisy".
“We are the only democracy in the world that does not have legalized gambling. What we want is just to authorize something that already exists. Or are there not 500,000 slot machines installed in the ‘favelas’ (local poor neighborhoods) , without any kind of control, serving precisely the clientele of evangelical churches, which are against gambling?”, argued the deputy.
For Nascimento, “it is easier to launder money in the financial system than in gaming. The debate is irrational. The militia exploits the slot machines in the ‘favelas’. The churches would have to be against that, wouldn't they? ”
Accordint to O Antagonista website, the debate on the legalization of gambling, in the return of the parliamentary recess, tends to be heated in Congress.
Source: GMB / O Antagonista
