Senator Angelo Coronel: ‘The best time to legalize gambling is now’

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 Updated on 02/03/2021 às 11h41
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Senator Angelo Coronel: ‘The best time to legalize gambling is now '

Senator Angelo Coronel (PSD-BA) intends to show his opinion regarding the Bill of Law (PL) 2648/2019, by Roberto Rocha (PSDB-MA) in the coming days. The proposal has to do with the release of bingos, Jogo do Bicho, slots and casinos aimed at strengthening the national economy at a stage after the control of the pandemic.

According to the senator, the regulation of all aspects of games has the possibility of inserting up to 50 billion in the economy, in addition to opening 700 thousand new direct jobs.

Angelo Coronel stressed that this is the ideal moment for understanding between the Congressional benches aiming for the agenda to be approved. He considers that the animal game, for example, “is a cultural program” of the population. “Today is a custom,” he declared.

In addition, the senator elected by Bahia reinforced that the proposal establishes awareness actions to protect people with gambling problems and that those who currently promote gambling would need to legalize the activity.

Still according to the politician, the project would grant the Federal Government the ability to inspect or regulate casinos, as Caixa Econômica Federal supervises federal lottery services today.

“We are not going to be an exception in the world, quite the contrary, today without games being legalized we are being an exception, so we cannot lose this source”, stressed Angelo Coronel.

Check out the interview with Senator Angelo Coronel:

Congresso em Foco: How is your report on the legalization of bingo and casinos?

Angelo Coronel – The project is for the legalization of all types of existing gambling. What I think is that all the modalities, that is, slot machines, bingos, Jogo do Bicho are legalized and then there is revenue for the government. Casino is also included in the legalization, but it still takes a while for the necessary infrastructure to have a casino to be implemented. It is not possible to set up a casino without having an infrastructure that receives tourists.

In the same way that we are after money to pay for the new emergency aid, there is nothing like having the opportunity to legalize these games that are already being played in Brazil without paying a cent of tax.

I think the time has come for everyone to come together: Catholic, Evangelical and non-Catholic and non-Evangelical groups, for everyone to come together because it is a source of taxes. We are not going to be an exception in the world, quite the contrary, today without games being legalized we are being an exception, so we cannot miss this source.

Congresso em Foco: And the question of inspection? We know that it is a segment that involves a lot of money, from Jogo do Bicho, casinos and slot machines, how do you see this issue?

Angelo Coronel – Today the Receita Federal is well equipped and is just plug in, put the electronic machines plugged in the website or in the Receita Federal link, this is a maturation that I have no doubt that will be very fast, it is just a matter of adapting the system of these existing modalities with the Receita Federal way of inspecting.

Congresso em Foco: When the bingos were closing, one of the issues raised was the addiction of people. Do you foresee in the report or in the debate with amendments, a campaign by the Ministry of Health so that, when these modalities are legalized, people who are dependent on gambling will have support?

Angelo Coronel – Absolutely. Today in the world there are around 1% of countries that have these games already being played and people who can become addicted, but this is very relative, because there are people who are addicted to even drinking Coca-Cola. Some are even addicted to sports.

We cannot think that 1% of the population where gambling exist will be dependent – that this will be an obstacle, quite the contrary. In our project, we foresee advertising campaigns so that people are really aware of what it is to play, so that we can prevent people from becoming addicted.

Congresso em Foco: Have you followed any amendments, do you have any questions?

Angelo Coronel – No, I will present the report next week and from there, before going to the vote, it should certainly have amendments. Now it is unacceptable: today we see, when they call at the football game, you see several advertisements of electronic gambling games on the edge of the field and the Brazilian government does not receive a penny on it.

Congresso em Foco: Are these platforms not hosted in Brazil?

Angelo Coronel – Nobody knows where they are, they are virtual. Today, Brazil does not collect a penny from these games, except for the sports lottery, the federal lottery that is also a gambling mode, so everything will be addressed.

Follow these same means of inspection now, as is done with the federal lottery and the sports lottery. I hope that the states also implement their state lotteries as it was in the past, that they were also deactivated and that they are now being authorized by the states to implement. Play if you want, nobody is obliged to play.

Congresso em Foco: In the case of the lottery, we have Caixa regulating this. How would we regulate the Jogo do Bicho? Do today’s bicheiros become legal? How this will unfold?

Angelo Coronel – As soon as Caixa opens an accreditation notice, the businessmen of the Jogo do Bicho will be accredited. Evidently, there are reserved spaces in each location, because there is not enough for everyone, as a matter of fact, new entrepreneurs open up other fronts that end up causing confusion. You have to prioritize who is already in the market, who already has a history.

Congresso em Foco: And would these people be amnestied in any way? Because today they are committing a misdemeanor. It is not a crime, but it is a misdemeanor. Would there be any judicial agreement with these entrepeneurs from the Jogo do Bicho?

Angelo Coronel – In my project, I do not ask that any Jogo do Bicho entrepreneur who is already installed paying, pay no tribute, only from the moment that it is legalized.

Congresso em Foco: But I say judicially. Today they are people who can be arrested, and then they will be amnestied? Does justice forget the retroactive and do we play from now on?

Angelo Coronel – Whoever has trouble with the law obviously has to deal with it has to fight to solve the procedural problem. Those who have none of that, have no reason to have problems with justice.

Congresso em Foco: With regard to slot machines, are we talking about creating specific spaces for this? Today these machines are clandestinely at the rear end of bars, small stores, what’s the idea? Would it be legalizing these places?

Angelo Coronel – From the moment that it can be used openly, legalized, it is evident that we are going to present a regulation of the quantities and locations of machines by city and by state, so that we can have this with more control.

Congresso em Foco: With regard to casinos, the project talks about luxury resorts to take advantage of local labor, how do you think the regulation of all this? Which ministry would be responsible for organizing this?

Angelo Coronel – About the casinos, they are a very high investments, which will take four to five years for Brazil to start collecting taxes as a result of the gambling. It is evident that the government should institute or even create some regulatory agency for the games or even use the structure of a Ministry of Regional Development (MDR).

Or the Ministry of Economy itself could be responsible for this matter. Evidently, from the moment you start building the casinos, there will also be generation of manpower, there will be generation of taxes because the entrepreneurs will buy equipment, production material for construction.

The economy starts to turn from there, now the fruit of the casino that is the tax we will only reap after four or five years, which is an average maturation period for a casino in the world, and in Brazil it will be no different.

Unless you already take advantage of existing resorts and from there you can only need to make the casino arena. This will all remain in the future regulation. First, we legalize, then we go to regulation.

This regulation will be very important, for example, how many casinos in Rio de Janeiro, how many in Brasília, Bahia and so on. The entrepreneur will also not want to place a casino in a place where he has no tourist potential to be able to attract the gamblers.

Often, when you travel with your family, one of them is gambling, but the rest want to enjoy the region’s tourism. So it’s not enough to just think about the gambling. We have to think about the infrastructure that can please the lovers of gambling.

Congresso em Foco: Do you think there is room for this matter to advance in the Congress?

Angelo Coronel – I believe that the best time to legalize gambling is now. Especially with Brazil needing resources in the post-pandemic to recover our economy and face social programs. Mainly, the emergency aid program.

There is a forecast, a projection, a priori, of R $ 50 billion in annual revenue and this is a figure without much verification, but it is estimated R $ 50 billion in annual tax generation and more than 700 thousand direct jobs.

We cannot give that up. To give you an idea, in South America only Brazil does not have legalized gambling. When you go to Europe, America, several countries have a great attribute in the game to inflate their GDP. We cannot give that up and stay out of history.

Especially those games that are already established like the Jogo do Bicho that is already a cultural program. Today it is a custom that evangelicals play to priests, doctors to lawyers, policemen to politicians, a large part of them plays a little in the Jogo do Bicho, clandestinely. It’s time for us to legalize.