"Deputy Maia was convinced with the idea of regulating gaming"

GMB: What is your balance of the meeting with the president of the Chamber, Rodrigo Maia? In addition to the promise that gaming topic will be included in the agenda, what else did he say about the regulatory gaming process?
Roberto Brasil Fernandes: At the meeting in the Planalto Palace, I had the opportunity to hear from the President of Brazil in office, Deputy Rodrigo Maia, that his personal position is for the regulation of casinos. He said, however, in other words, that it is necessary to define a text that includes or not the other modalities, in a safe and respectful way with the society.

What is the reaction of Deputy Maia in relation to the recent research done by the Paraná Institute on the opinion of the population on the legalization of gaming?
The deputy did not show surprise with the research.

Was the delivery of the report favorable to PL 186/14 by Senator Benedito de Lira to CCJ also on the agenda? What is the repercussion among deputies and what effect can it have on the House project?
Although at that time Deputy Rodrigo Maia was in the position of President of the Republic in office, the main purpose of the meeting was the inclusion of PL 442/1991 in the agenda of the Chamber of Deputies, institution in which he holds the position of elected President of the House. The opinion of Marquezelli and Cesar Hallun, who participated in the metting, was that Deputy Rodrigo Maia should soon put on the agenda of the House the bill approved by the Special Committee, entitled PL 442/91.

You were with Deputy Cesar Halum who is working in the creation of a parliamentary gaming front in the House. What did he say about the installation of this front? How many signatures of the total 171 needed did he get?
Congressman Cesar Hallun hopes that the Parliamentary Front will create the strength to put the bill in motion and approve the bill, which was approved in the Special Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, which, entitled PL 442/91, was widely discussed in parliament and has more than 25 years. According to Deputy's assistants, up to last Friday the Front had 130 signatures.

What were the points defended by businessmen presente at the meeting? Did they talk about job creation, investments, taxes?
The opportunity with President-in-Office Rodrigo Maia was to ask for inclusion in the agenda of project PL 442/91, the text of which was jointly developed in the Commission and is the result of several public hearings. Deputy Maia was convinced by the idea of regulating gaming, especially casinos, as products of regional development, tourism, job creation and tax revenue.

In a general assessment, can we say that the gaming legalization process took another important step to be approved soon?
The attitude of Deputy Maia, in the exercise of the Presidency of the Republic, by reserving a space in his tight agenda to listen to the deputies and representatives of the sector, is an unequivocal demonstration of the interest of the federal government for the cause, without that being said that they are defined with the text of the project.

I see a Republican attitude of deputies Nelson Marquezelli and Cesar Hallun, in defending the regulation of an activity that in Brazil has always existed in the clandestinity. Hallun and Marquezelli, together with other major parliamentarians, defend the legalization of gaming as a way to combat clandestine and tax evasion of approximately 20 billion reais (US$ 6.40b) per year and more than two hundred thousand jobs.

Quoting Estoril-Sol’s CEO, Mario Assis Ferreira in the Chamber of Deputies, "Brazil has for decades prohibited the legal and tolerates clandestine", and now this may change forever. As Abrabincs President, Olavo Sales, said "by taking gaming out of the Police pages and putting it on Economy section of the Brazilian newspapers."

The Ministry of Finance, through its SEAE, could shorten this debate, proposing the regulation of the sector beyond LOTEX.

For decades (since 1991), the projects that have taken place in the National Congress always run counter to the doubts of the Public Ministry, the Ministry of Finance and the Church, precisely the organs and sector that will gain most from the controlled exploitation of gaming in Brazil: public safety and combat to the clandestine / tax revenue and income / and the only way to efficiently control ludopatia: THE LEGAL GAMING OFFER.