Rio Grande do Sul chosen to become a gambling paradise in Brazil

Rio Grande do Sul has entered the international route of gaming. Casino operators in Europe and the United States are stepping up the state in search of real estate in the capital and in cities with the economy and tourism developed to install gambling venues, banned in Brazil. The ventures are articulated in partnership with local machines manufacturers and from the center of the country.

This week, a proposal addressed to the Secretariat of Public Security (SSP) reinforced the interest that has moved the entrepreneurs involved with gaming houses: the Jockey Club Carazinhense formalized a plan to reactivate the operations of the Lottery of the State of Rio Grande do Sul ( Lotergs ), paralyzed since 2004. It offered to invest R$ 10 million (US$ 3.2m) in the business, which could, according to the proposal, revert resources to equip the security area, now sacrificed by the state financial crisis.

The strategy involves rescuing old court decisions, using legal loopholes, renting buildings and works. There is another important factor for businessmen: the gaucho (as are named the locals) judiciary has stopped condemning gambling exploiters for criminal contravention.

The sum of the elements produces the revenue of the new branch offensive. The goal is to open large enterprises, unlike the current houses that operate in secret, in derelict buildings.

At least five businesspeople from Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, calling themselves representatives of foreign groups, have already sought owners of buildings and directors of real estate companies interested in leasing commercial points. Rogério Andrade, nephew of the bouncer Castor de Andrade, who died in 1997 and one of the clan's patriarchs of the contravention in Rio de Janeiro, is involved in the task force of gaming houses. Rogério would already be operating a bingo in Porto Alegre and looking for places in the Serra and Santa Catarina.

One company that claims to have legal support to open a bingo is Sparta Administração e Participações, with partners in Rio de Janeiro and Florida (USA). It rented for five months the building where a branch of the National supermarket operated, at Rua Miguel Tostes, Rio Branco neighborhood, in Porto Alegre. The deal is in partnership with the Jockey Club Carazinhense, of Carazinho, in the north of the state of Rio Grande do Sul.

In order to prevent its activities from being repressed by the Military Brigade and the Civil Police, the Jockey joined Judicial Secretary Cezar Schirmer in July. In the document, it is stated: "With great fear that the Military Police and Civil Police search and seize equipment destined to licit activity at the addresses of its substations and accredited agencies is that the institution has a legal interest in challenging the Secretary of Security notifying it of the existence of judgment 598134740, which has become final ".

The ruling, dating back to 1999, is the result of a lawsuit in which the Jockey Club Carazinhense discussed the seizure of equipment owned by it - electronic machines for horse-racing gaming and lottery-. The judicial decision of the time was favorable to the entity, saying there was no legal rule preventing that type of equipment was installed and exploited. It was also pointed out in the judgment that the licensing for these machines should be given by the city halls, and the police did not have the autonomy to act in relation to the activity.

Another operator that bets its chips in the state is the Spanish group Pefaco, with operations in Europe, Africa and Paraguay. In June, it rented the building of an old concert hall in the Cavalhada neighborhood, in the southern area of Porto Alegre.Named " Winfil Home Entertainment”, the establishment would be opened at the end of August, but the inauguration was postponed, according to the company, by delay in the works.

Pefaco has announced that it plans to open 20 venues in Rio Grande do Sul - four of them in Porto Alegre and the other in Caxias do Sul, Canela and Gramado, in the Serra, Novo Hamburgo and São Leopoldo, in Vale do Sinos, Capão da Canoa, in the North Coast, Lajeado, in the Valley of the Taquari, and Pelotas, in the South Zone. Later, the plan is to expand to other States.

The arguments of entrepreneurs to open game venues in RS

Lawyer Marcelo Bruno Nascimento is covered by the Law of the Equideoculture Activities (known as the Law of the Turf), in 1984, to open a gaming house in Miguel Tostes Street, in the Capital. From that legislation, the Jockey Club Carazinhense filed a lawsuit in the late 1990s at the Court of Justice of Rio Grande do Sul, and won the case. However, according to Nascimento, even with the decision, the sports management of that Jockey never explored betting games because of ignorance of the decision, and only now he became interested in the subject.

"Jockey Club Carazinhense is a patent holder and can explore various betting modalities. After the closing of the house and the end of the bets, this decision (of 1999) became final in the courts of Rio Grande do Sul and Jockey won. "In Miguel Tostes, a subsection of the Commercial Jockey of Carazinho will be opened," said Nascimento, who added that the establishment will explore cardboard bingos.

Winfil claims that it is partially protected by law. The lawyer of the establishment, Laerte Luís Gschwenter, maintains that decisions of the gaucho recourse tribunals of the Court of Justice consider that the exploitation of gaming is no longer a contravention punishable by those responsible for the establishment.

"The law passed in Rio Grande do Sul by the recursional courts has removed criminality from the contravention / exploitation of games of chance." This thesis has already been approved by the STF Supreme Court, and in the general repercussion of the matter was decided, which defined the suspension of all processes involving games of chance in Brazil, remaining the decision of merit to make the same interpretation for the rest of the country. Until that happens, everything is suspended," says the lawyer.

Source: GMB / ADRIANA IRION - CARLOS ROLLSING - EDUARDO PAGANELLA - JOSÉ LUIS COSTA - GaúchaZH Research Group