Discussions around the regulation of sports betting in Brazil continue to move the Brazilian political environment. Fearing that a measure to be adopted by President Jair Bolsonaro could open the door to the legalization of other verticals, evangelical deputy Marco Feliciano explicitly told the president that he is against a Provisional Measure (PM) on the subject, as revealed by columnist Lauro Jardim in his column in O Globo.
“It went wrong in the edition of the Provisional Measure that the government would release last week the regulation of the betting sector through digital means – and that would oblige it to pay taxes,” opens the column by Lauro Jardín.
According to him, after a sewing made by Ciro Nogueira with evangelical leaders to explain the content of the PM, that is, that this measure does not mean the legalization of the whole gambling sector, Jair Bolsonaro stopped sending the proposal to Congress.
The imminent regulation of sports betting remains the focus of the sector, but the defense of the issue of customs continues to outdo itself and dominate the political scene in Brasilia, to the point of putting President Jair Bolsonaro hostage to the evangelical bloc of the National Congress.
The draft of the presidential decree that regulates sports betting in Brazil released by a couple of weeks ago by GMB is still the only sign that the sector could be implemented immediately for the country to start receiving taxes on the activity.
But the electoral agenda, as always happens in Brazil, is the beacon that is guiding the flow of regulation. On October 2, the election for president, state governors, congressmen and senators will take place. If the presidential candidate does not reach 50% of the votes plus one, the second round will take place on October 30th.
President Bolsonaro, a candidate for reelection, is feeling increasingly pressured by polls. The main opposition candidate, Luís Inácio Lula da Silva, appears first and could even win in the first round. In the most recent poll, released this Wednesday (8), Lula points to 52.87%.
As Bolsonaro has strong support in the most conservative part of the population, he is reaffirming his positions in relation to customs, against gaming and the LGBTQIA+ community.
With this, the evangelical bench still supports him and therefore has to follow the booklet of what determines this portion of parliamentarians. Until the moment when even they will support the opposition candidate to try to secure some positions in the future government.
Source: GMB / Lauro Jardim / O Globo
