Having lost this year’s Carnival celebration due to Covid-19, many tourism interests in Brazil are pushing legalize casinos to bring more visitors to the country.
Casinos have been closed in Brazil since 1946. In the decades before that, Brazilian casinos such as the Casino da Urca in Rio were renowned for being frequented by Hollywood stars. The economic impact of closing the casinos was felt in cities where tourism was king, such as in Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro, Poços de Caldas and Lambari.
In April the Federal Supreme Court (STF) will take up the issue of whether gaming is legal. The Criminal Misdemeanor Law under which casinos were closed was passed in 1941, while the current Federal Constitution, was adopted in 1988.
If the Supreme Court rules that casinos are legal, that could have a similar effect to when the U.S. Supreme Court lifted the federal ban on sports betting in 2018. It might create a new market.
Proponents support legalization as a way to generate jobs and tax revenues to fund social programs this year without adding to deficit spending as well as attract foreign investment in integrated resorts.
Last year lawmakers introduced Bill 4495/2020, which was favorably commented on by the Regional Development and Tourism Commission (CDR). Four other similar bills are also being considered.
The office of Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, last May formed an
Interministerial Committee to study regulatory alternatives promoting private investments in the Brazilian tourism sector.
Former Municipal Tourism Company of Rio de Janeiro (RioTur) president and attorney Trajano Ribeiro told Games Magazine Brasil: “The opening of casinos in the different regions of Brazil and in Rio de Janeiro would be an important factor for large contingents of tourists who make gaming a stimulus for the visit.”
Ribeiro who held various tourism posts during the 1980s and 90s, including Secretary of State for Tourism and Sport, said “Casinos are an important tourist attraction, with the ability to arouse interest in places and regions that are absolutely uninteresting from the tourist point of view. Brazil as a whole and the city of Rio de Janeiro in particular, are, due to their natural beauty, climate and the hospitality of their people, an extraordinary potential for tourism. The implantation of casinos in the different regions of Brazil and in Rio de Janeiro would be a stimulus factor for large contingents of tourists who consider gambling an important stimulus for the visit.”
Conservative legislators in the National Congress oppose legalization but it is under discussion, and some gaming experts believe the market could be legalized this year.
Attorney Carla Junqueira, a specialist in international trade, told LETS Marketing, “the legalization of casino games within ‘integrated resorts’, followed by a concession process for exploration, could attract large investors to the Brazilian tourism market, boosting economic activity in all regions of Brazil.”
Ribeiro urges legalization as a way to help the country recover from the pandemic: “The pandemic has devastated the economy of many countries, including ours, of the rest of the most vulnerable. The exit from the crisis will be slow and will require a lot of creativity and innovation. I do not believe it is possible to recover 14,000,000 jobs without a strong reactivation of the service sector, the largest employer of labor.”
He added, “tourist activity triggers a gigantic productive chain, involving transport, textile industry, automotive oil and gas, electric energy, civil construction, arts in general, music, show, generating millions of indirect jobs. Perhaps no other sector of the economy has such an impact on the economy as a whole. Tourism is among the main engines of the economy of the ten most developed countries.”
The Brazilian Legal Gaming Institute (IBJL) estimates that the illegal gaming market totals R$ 18.9 billion ($3.43 billion U.S.)
In an interview with Games Magazine Brasil, Bruno Hideo Omori, president of the Institute of Development, Tourism, Culture, Sport and Environment (IDT-CEMA) called on the country’s government to “think big,” when it comes gaming.
As a spokesman advocating for gaming in Brazil, Omori has represented the country at international and national events. He explained, “I answer the questions by presenting my technical analysis and overwhelming data.”
He declared, “the regulation of the gaming sector will have a positive impact on the macroeconomics of Brazil,” adding, “legalized gaming, being treated as public policy, as an economic activity, could bring resources to be used in education, safety and health.”
He added, “We defend the thesis that the regulation of gaming will have a positive impact on Brazil’s macroeconomics; its approval will allow the creation of legislation with a liberal and market focus. We cannot limit a specific gaming model; we have to authorize integrated resort casinos, casino hotel, urban casino, bingo, online gambling, among others. In the locality where gaming can be installed, we will see opportunities for investment, development and economic growth. Therefore, we understand that we must think big, in a model that allows all cities and tourist destinations to take advantage of the regulation. We have the capacity to positively impact our country’s economy.”
Brazil is the only one of the G20 that doesn’t have gaming, except, of course for Islamic countries. The country isn’t entirely devoid of gaming. There is the lottery but no slots or table games.
