Last February, the Humanist Solidarity Party filed with the Supreme Court (STF) the Fundamental Precept Non-Compliance Arrangement (ADPF) 563, with an injunction seeking the purpose of freeing private gambling. According to the party, rules that prevent activity from being exploited by individuals unjustifiably offend individual liberty and contradict the constitutional dictates of the economic order and must therefore be declared unrecognized by the 1988 Federal Constitution.
Following is the full text of the petition raised by PHS Minister and ADPF Rapporteur 563 Edson Fachin:
The Humanist Solidarity Party (PHS) comes to Your Excellency to call for a public hearing to gather testimony from authorities and members of society that can provide technical and legal clarifications on the decriminalization of private exploitation of gambling. ADPF 563 has great social, political, economic and criminal policy relevance and the testimony of persons with technical expertise representing related parties - workers and public and private institutions - can greatly contribute to the decision of the matter. As argued by the ADPF Initial, the reception of art. 50 of LCP and Decree-Law No. 9,215 of 1946 unjustifiably offends individual liberty and contravenes the constitutional dictates of the economic order. The rules contested by this ADPF indirectly create a market reserve for gambling economic activity, which is monopolistically exploited by the Government. The criminalization of other forms of gambling is only justified for the maintenance of State monopoly. The offense was evident after the publication of Law No. 13,756 of 2018, which opened to private initiative the possibility of exploiting fixed odds sports betting, including online. The Federal Government recently decided to privatize the operation of the Exclusive Instant Lottery (Lotex), known as the "raspadinha” (scratch card). These normative acts deepen the incongruity of maintaining the attacked norms. The State that forbids it is the one that exploits gambling through the Caixa Econômica Federal and now through private betting on sporting events. Since the date of the ADPF's protocolization, the discussion about decriminalization of the exploitation of gambling by private initiative has been taking shape. There is a willingness of Parliament, Federal, State and Municipal Executive Power to discuss the issue. According to the Federal Government, the decriminalization of private gambling is an unavoidable topic to be discussed in the coming months in the country. Newspapers report that the Ministry of Tourism and EMBRATUR advocate the legalization of private gambling as a way to triple the number of tourists in Brazil and attract investments of R$ 60 billion (US$ 14.3b), generating thousands of jobs and strengthening public coffers of the three levels with millions in taxes. A public hearing with the support of those who are in favor and those who oppose it is a great opportunity for the topic to be discussed at a high level and to provide input to support the decision of the Supreme Court.Source: Games Magazine Brasil
