Supporter: “Not the end of the world”
Brazil gaming legislation, which would legalize casinos, bingo halls, slot parlors and the popular Jogo do Bicho game, has been returned by the Senate the lower house for further debate.
Last month the government’s Special Committee for National Development approved a new version of legislation written by Senator Ciro Nogueira in 2014. Committee Chairman Senator Fernando Bezerra Coelho sent the revised draft to the Senate. Senator Magno Malta then asked the House Committee on Constitution, Justice and Citizenship for more debate, and the bill went back to the House.
Gaming opponent Deputy Luiz Carlos Hauly says legalizing casinos and other forms of gambling would have serious consequences. “Compulsive gambling is as harmful to humans as drugs and alcohol,” he said.
Deputy Gilberto Nascimento also opposes the bill, and says Brazil—in the grip of its worst recession in decades—should find growth industries beyond gaming. And Deputy Roberto de Lucena says most people in Brazil do not support legal gaming.
But Deputy Joao Carlos Bacelar Batista said it’s time to approve the bill, which has been under discussion on and off for some 25 years. “This is not the time to say that we will not discuss it or that we need to discuss it further. That has passed. We need to decide now. There has been a monumental delay in making a decision on this.
“Gaming is necessary for Brazil, it will generate wealth,” he insisted. “The decision cannot be based on anyone’s moral convictions. No group has the right to impose its values on the other group.”
Deputy Herculano Passos, chairman of the Tourism Committee in Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies, pointed out that gaming is already prevalent in the country, yet the government derives no economic benefit from the unregulated industry.
According to CDC Gaming Reports, much of the opposition to legal gaming comes from religious circles in the predominantly Catholic country. Malta, for example, is a pastor.
Meanwhile, bill supporter Magno Jose de Souza, president of the Institute for Legal Gaming, said the referral of the bill back to the CJC is “not the end of the world. It’s just one more stage of the process.”
“We will work to pass the bill and create muscle to confront the full Senate again soon. The end of the world would be if the proposal were to be rejected by the Senate plenary,” he said.
