In an analysis column published by the Brazilian
website BNLData, Magnho José, president of the Institute of Legal Gambling
(IJL), assured that President Bolsonaro is betting on the evangelical sector,
but that he is wrong in believing that keeping gambling illegal is a better
option for the Government than legalizing the sector. Below we share said
column with our readers.
The interview with President
Jair Bolsonaro in the magazine Veja, in which he assures
that the legalization of gambling will not have the support of the Government
to be approved in Congress, and that in case of approval, he will veto the proposal;
in addition to considering that through legalization there will be "more
to lose than to gain at this time," caused a negative impact among
the parliamentarians of the Working Group (GT, for its initials in Portuguese)
which was created by the president of the Chamber of Deputies, to update the
bill that legalizes casinos, gambling, bingo, slot machines, and online
gambling.
The group's coordinator, Deputy
João Carlos Bacelar in a comment to BNLData said that the
opinion of the President is wrong and that it is the State that loses the most
if unregulated gambling continues.
“The opinion of President Jair
Bolsonaro on gambling is completely wrong and his values are inverted. The
State is the one who loses the most, by keeping the game illegal and by not
collecting the billions of reais that this activity currently moves. The
Brazilian citizen also loses, because he does not have the protection of the
State. Investments, collection of new taxes, and thousands of jobs are obvious
arguments, but the real challenge for the Legislative department at this time
is the creation and establishment of laws and regulations that allow citizens
to exercise their desire to play under the watchful eye of clearly defined
rules defined by the State and the effective application of said rules”, he
said.
The congressman was also concerned with
the approach to the issue from a religious perspective and the insistence they
maintain, even if it is involuntary, regarding the "prohibited
industry."
"Approaching the issue from the
perspective of 'customs', just to please his own evangelical beliefs, places
the President, albeit inadvertently, on the side of whoever gains the most from
illegal gambling," he said.
Bolsonaro is on the side of his
evangelical electorate
The inaction and omission of the State
to legalize and regulate this sector has generated a strong increase in
unregulated gambling in recent years. Brazilians are not prohibited
from gambling, but Brazil is prohibited from raising funds from the game and
controlling this activity.
As a matter of fact, religious people
should leave the lobby to keep gambling underground and understand that
legalization would be the best solution. It is a mistake to believe that
gambling in Brazil will begin to work with the creation of a regulatory
framework for this sector.
The president's statement helped remove
the focus from Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, after the Covid Parliamentary
Investigation Commission (CPI for its initials in Portuguese) linked that the
institutional director of Precisa Medicamentos, Danilo Trento, would have
participated in the Brazilian delegation formed by Senators Flávio Bolsonaro
and Irajá, by the deputy Hélio Lopes and by the former president of Embratur
and Minister of Tourism, Gilson Machado.
The delegation held institutional
meetings with Carnival Group and Royal Caribbean International, in Miami, and
with the President and CEO of the Las Vegas Sand Corporation, Sheldon Adelson,
in Las Vegas. President Jair Bolsonaro's statement serves to satisfy part of
his electorate. "He stood on the side of his electorate with the following
speech, 'I'm fine with the evangelicals and the Parliament decides,'"
commented one operator. The United States, with an evangelical (48.5%) and
Catholic (22.7%) tradition, legalized and accepted gambling in its legal
system, because it realized that there was a demand for “someone” to provide
this service.
Fonte: Yogonet Gaming News
