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The Chamber of Deputies withdrew from voting this Monday (13) an urgent request for the bill that legalizes gambling games (bingo, animal game, casino and sports betting).

The request was on the agenda for the day, but was withdrawn due to the lack of a quorum, after strong pressure from the evangelical bench, which is against legalization.

If the request were voted on and approved, the process would skip some steps — the text would be analyzed directly by the Plenary without going through commissions. To approve the request, 257 votes would be needed, a number higher than the 162 congressmen registered at the opening of the session. The Evangelical Parliamentary Front is formed by 107 deputies.

The legalization text has not yet been presented and is in the hands of the working group created by the president of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), in September.

The bill defines gambling and skill games as economic activities that will be regulated and supervised by a federal agency (which would likely be a regulatory agency). Interested companies would have to buy a license at auction to explore the different modalities.

At the same time that it legalizes gambling — which has been banned in Brazil for 80 years — the proposal increases the penalties for those who exploit them without a license. The practice would no longer be a criminal misdemeanor (infringement with a light sentence) to be a crime punishable by up to seven years in prison.

License to operate betting games reaches R$ 200 million

The minimum auction price for each license is one of the items under discussion. In the draft, the values ​​described are:

  • Casino integrated into resort: R$ 200 million;
  • Skill games: R$200 million;
  • Online games: R$200 million;
  • Tourist casino: R$100 million;
  • Bingo: R$50 million;
  • Jogo do Bicho: R$ 40 million;
  • Tourism entity (the “jockey clubs”): R$ 10 million.

Half of the amount would go to the state in which the project is installed (or to the Federal District). The other half would go to the Union, being shared between the Brazilian Agency for the International Promotion of Tourism (Embratur) and funds linked to sports, the protection of players and bettors, culture and public safety.

There is also a requirement for a minimum share capital for companies, according to each activity. In all cases, the company would be required to be incorporated in Brazil as a corporation.

The regulatory body could define how many operators will be licensed in each modality across the country — which is one of the most delicate points in the process of legalizing gambling, according to sources accompanying the negotiations.

According to the rapporteur, the “batter is high” in the requirements, which may alienate some investors. The minimum bids in the auction and the tax burden may be revised until the presentation of the final version, which is expected to come out until this Tuesday (14).

According to the Uol portal, the minimum price for auctions was arbitrarily established, without prior study. The license period provided for in the text should still alienate investors — the maximum period varies from five to 15 years, depending on the modality.

Registered players and agents

The bill creates a registry of betting agents, who would need to pass a technical certification exam and could not have criminal convictions. Only they could work on running the games.

In practice, registration would be required from bookmakers, poker table dealers and casino managers, for example.

Bets would only be released for people over 18, registered and not insolvent (when the Court declares that the person has a debt greater than his equity).

These players could, through registration, set limits to the game itself, to avoid addiction and indebtedness. Mechanisms such as daily limit on game and loss time and pause period are foreseen.

Priority for Casinos and Resort Gambling

The project is concerned with establishing a competitive advantage for the so-called integrated resorts: hotels with a casino and space to host large events. Each state could have a maximum of three resorts, depending on population size.

This authorization would still depend on the regulatory body declaring the region as of special tourist interest.

Only states with an integrated resort could have the so-called “tourist casinos”, which do not require a hotel and event structure. These casinos would need to be at a minimum distance of 100 km from the integrated resort, also in special tourist areas.

The rapporteur, Deputy Felipe Carreras, stated that the minimum distance could rise to 300 km. He said that this is a way to encourage foreign investors to open resorts.

In practice, the measure would keep small casinos illegal in most of Brazil.

It will be harder to bet on international sites

The text defines as a crime the authorization of financial transactions through credit card for foreign sites that explore games in Brazil without a license. If the bank authorizes the transaction, the person responsible would be subject to four to seven years in prison.

This measure would make it difficult to explore games on international sites that operate with great freedom today in Brazil, without public control or collection of taxes.

The bill also prohibits commercial advertising on gambling sites. This would hit international sports betting sites, which sponsor several football teams in Brazil and appear more and more in TV and streaming advertisements, such as Sportingbet, Bet365 and 188BET.

In 2018, at the end of the term of Michel Temer (MDB), the fixed-quote modality for sports betting was created. People bet on real results (like the score of a match or the winner of a fight) and know in advance how much they will win if they get the prediction right. Despite legalization, the modality remains unregulated, which only depends on an act of the Executive Branch.

Is the urgent request justified?

Parliamentarians who oppose the proposal criticize the attempt to legalize the games and question the need to analyze the matter as a matter of urgency. The text will be a replacement for a bill that has been dragging on since 1991, with more than one hundred proposals attached.

Legalization is mainly resisted by the evangelical benches. Pastor Silas Malafaia, an ally of President Jair Bolsonaro (PL), said the approval would be a tragedy.

“Now comes the House Speaker, Arhur Lira, at the end of the lights, wanting to approve this garbage? This is a shame. It only interests powerful economic groups and corrupt money laundering. It does not benefit the country’s economy at all.” , said Malafaia.

The rapporteur, Deputy Carreras, said that there was ample debate in public hearings and that the proposal is ripe for voting.

“There is nothing about ‘dead night’. The gambling market has to work with light. We need to find a balance that generates employment, revenue and investments”, concluded Congressman Felipe Carreras.