The idea of including casinos in the new General Tourism Law came from Deputy Paulo Azi, in order to meet a request from international companies wishing to invest in Brazil. According to the president of the Tourism front, Azi intends to include the casinos topic in the proposal that deals with the regulation of resorts, following what is already predicted in the draft laws of gaming, both in the Senate (PLS186 / 2014) and in the Chamber of Deputies itself (PL 442/1991).
However, in order for this proposal of the possible Plenary Rapporteur, Paulo Azi, to become truly concrete and can be voted on, there is a long road full of uncertainties and conditions to be considered.
One of the barriers was overcome on Wednesday with the release of the agenda in the plenary of the House of Representatives after the approval of the provisional measure that deals with the renegotiation of credit operations by the Union.
With the bill released, the proposal of the casinos now depends on the request of urgency of the Deputy Herculano Passos, which aims to accelerate the processing of Brasil Mais Turismo projects, which encompasses the new General Tourism Law that can be voted at any time, even with the proposals of tourism following in ordinary process waiting for the nomination of members to create a special commission, where the topics should be thoroughly discussed.
According to Herculano Passos, the petition needs 257 votes in favor to be approved and, consequently, obtain the immediate inclusion of the project in the agenda of the Plenary, ending the need to be assessed in said special commission.
However, there is still no estimate of how many parliamentarians will vote in favor of the request, as there is strong resistance to these proposals because they deal with controversial issues such as opening up the airline industry to foreign capital and the casino proposal itself. In summary, there is a high probability that the application will not go through the Plenary.
The approval of the application is the only possibility of the proposal of inclusion of the casinos in the project of the General Law of Tourism, since it is agreed among the parliamentarians that Paulo Azi, author of the casinos proposal, will be the rapporteur of the project if the application is approved and go straight to the plenary.
In case the urgency is not approved, the procedure follows its normal course and it is agreed that Herculano will be the president of the committee that will discuss the tourism law.
Herculano stressed that he is in favor of legalizing all types of gambling in the country, but his priority is the liberation of casinos by its direct link with tourism, which can bring more international investment and increase the number of tourists who visit the country annually heating the industry in its entirety.
Source: GMB Exclusive
