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The chief sponsor of a pending Senate bill to regulate land-based casinos and bingo halls insists that his proposal will be unaffected by the series of negative headlines now impeding online gaming in Brazil.
Senator Irajá, the rapporteur of Bill 2.234/2022, was on hand at SBC Lisbon last week to promote his project’s bright future, ahead of an anticipated vote on the sweeping gaming expansion measure on the floor of the Senate later this year.
In a roundtable discussion, he told anxious audience members that the spate of alarming media coverage on online casino and betting platforms operating in Brazil “is actually reason for concern, although the arguments behind the legalisation of land-based gaming are very different”.
Those arguments include the creation of jobs and boosting the Brazilian economy through the proposed authorisation of one to three casino-resorts in each of Brazil's 26 states, plus bingo halls and video-bingo operations in cities across the country.
“What we're trying to do at the Congress is to separate the current discussion on land-based [gaming] from the online operation. The way that they are advocating for the approval of the bill is by defending the tourism, jobs, creations and investment in Brazil,” he told SBC Summit delegates.
Irajá claimed that his fellow senators have realised that legalisation of gaming in Brazil is a foregone conclusion, even though casinos and bingo halls were intended to be legislated separately from sports betting, as the latter was seen as an acceptable national pastime whereas casinos were viewed as a moral liability for some politicians.
“The Congress has realised that gambling is a reality in Brazil, and either they have it regulated and run by serious people, serious companies, or it's going to be run by organised crime. But it's there, so it's better to have it regulated, legalised, organised and run by serious people.”
He also relayed that, at last count, gambling proponents have the necessary votes among senators to pass the bill into law.
That will require a simple majority of those senators who are present on the day of the vote.
Irajá is including a group of anti-gambling evangelical senators in that vote count, all of whom are decidedly against the casino bill.
“Evangelicals are against it for their own reasons. It's not logical, it's not technical, but they have their own beliefs and their own reasons to go against it. But from the assessment that they made, they understand that they already have all the necessary votes, the majority votes to pass it.”
Addressing mounting media and political scrutiny of online gambling, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is expected to announce a package of reforms this week after a furor surrounding a study by the Central Bank of Brazil found that Brazilians supposedly spent R$20bn (US$3.66bn) per month on online gambling this year.
Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco told local outlet O Globo this week that “something needs to be done” about online gambling.
It will be Pacheco, in his role as Senate leader, who determines exactly when Bill 2234/2022 will be brought up for a final vote in the Senate.
But Pacheco also told Globo that he plans to allow for votes on bills that will further restrict sports betting and online gaming operators after Brazilian municipal elections finish at the end of October.
