The mayor accepted the opinion of the Attorney General's Office, which highlighted the following points:
* the municipality's lack of authority to legislate and operate lottery services;
* the revenue imbalance that could arise from allowing the municipality to accumulate its own lottery revenues in addition to federal and state transfers, without proportional redistribution;
* the lack of overriding local interest to justify the creation of a lottery service at the municipal level.
Furthermore, the legal opinion also identified a flaw in the project's initiative, as the proposal directly interferes with the municipal administrative structure and the allocation of public resources.
Since the Supreme Federal Court (STF) ruling that ended the federal government's monopoly on lottery operations, several states have advanced their local laws, and municipalities have also entered the business.
Although the STF ruling clearly states' autonomy to regulate their lotteries, the constitutionality of municipal operations has been questioned by several industry experts. For some, only states could create laws to explore the activity, not municipalities.
Source: GMB
