Unfortunately, for obvious reasons, I was unable to give the floor to those responsible for clandestine gambling in Brazil. People who live outside the law because of the authoritarian rubble that still rules the country created by the dictatorship of the Estado Novo (1937/1945) and strengthened by the Military Dictatorship (1964/1989). Legal provisions that unemployed thousands of workers in Brazilian casinos in 1946; thousands more in 2007, when the bingos closed, which had been authorized by the Pelé and Zico laws; and that have kept thousands of operators of the jogo do bicho in illegality for 120 years.
I did the articles during the COVID 19 pandemic, facing TV Globo, which released a biased and cowardly film about the historic jogo do bicho operator Castor de Andrade. Great supporter of the Brazilian carnival, friend of the patrons Anísio Abrão David, GRES Beija-Flor de Nilópolis, and Ailton Guimarães Jorge, GRES Vila Isabel, to whom the filmmakers did not give a voice. Audiovisual product invented to create panic and an environment contrary to all patrons of the samba schools in Rio de Janeiro.
This editorial direction was very evident after the publication of the article by the reporter Chico Otavio, from the newspaper O Globo, with the title “New chiefs of jogo do bicho bet in alliance with militia” last Feburary 21st. In which, without any evidence, it involves institutions and people with organized crime. In the matter only allegations.
In 2018, the same newspaper O Globo published the editorial “The Best is Legalizing Gambling to Regulate it.” An official text favorable to the regulation of the sector in Brazil. In which it recognizes that it was a mistake for Globo Organizations, for decades, to be against the free decision of a citizen, of a country where democracy prevails - universal political system that is above religions and ideologies - in gambling or not gambling: “Time has passed, gambling in casinos has gone underground, and it has been until today. This newspaper (O Globo) supported President Dutra in that decision and was always critical of the possibility of his return, due to the addiction aspect and the risk of constituting another loophole to be exploited by organized crime, especially for money laundering.
The same reasons that led Dutra to lower the 1946 decree. In these 72 years, however, the advancement of digital technology has rendered a formal prohibition innocuous, which fails to prevent gambling from being made electronically, beyond the reach of the Brazilian State. It is enough to install servers in countries where there is a friendly tax treatment for casinos and from there to receive bets from Brazilians”. Does the investigative reporter from O Globo, Chico Otavio, not investigate the editorials of the newspaper where he works? From the articles he writes, since 2018, contrary to the regulation of gambling, I deduce that not!
Why is it that Chico Otavio does not denounce, with the same courage that denounces casinos, bingos, and jogo do bicho as structures of money laundering and crime, the national and international banking system. According to the Russian minister, Viktor Ivanov, who commands a powerful structure to combat money laundering in the world: “Drug manufacturers are left with only 5% of the profit. Those responsible for transportation, with 30% or 40%. The rest goes to organized crime, which launders money. And there is no doubt that the global banking system is one of the biggest beneficiaries. In the lack of chronic liquidity that we see today, banks need resources to generate credit, and the tolerance is great. In Russian, we say: for banks, money doesn't smell.” The above statement by this important Russian official is interesting because in his reports there are no complaints against casinos, bingos, or jogo do bicho. Banks that launder money!
The interview with Minister Viktor Ivanov was published in “O Globo”, but, apparently, the reporter Chico Otavio, besides not reading the editorials, does not read the articles published in the newspaper where he works. I wish he read the following note in the Ancelmo Góis column, on 03/04/2021: “The presidents of the Chamber, Arthur Lira, and the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco, met with CEOs of the 50 largest companies in the country. The two said that one of the priority guidelines for approval is the release of casinos in Brazil.”
I dedicate a special attention to these contradictions above because, as said the coordinator of the Mixed Parliamentary Front in Defense of the creation of the Regulatory Framework for Gaming in Brazil, João Carlos Bacelar: “Today, there is a minority that defends a law that is called in the Chamber of 'Sheldon Adelson Law' (in honor of the recently deceased American businessman), which only allows the legalization of Resorts Integrated Casinos. We are absolutely against this. I have noticed that the movement in Congress is to regulate only three casinos and to deliver the monopoly of gambling in Brazil to investors in the United States. They want to push the unregulated market into criminal structures, which would be absurd.” For the deputy: "It is unacceptable to open the doors of Brazil to international entrepreneurs without legalizing the Brazilian entrepreneur, who is there as a contraventor."
In the opinion of journalist Gildo Mazza, from the news portal Games Magazine Brasil, regrettably the newspapers Folha de São Paulo, O Estado de São Paulo and the magazine Veja still preserve the rancidity of the times of 1946, when, for decree the casinos in Brazil were closed: “They are vehicles of communication that openly maintain an anti-liberal, statist and centralizing position. They want the Brazilian State to continue with the monopoly protecting the citizen. We can go to the cinema, theater, and the museum but we cannot bet. For a press that claims to be free, this is harmful. On televisions, we have only Rede Bandeirantes in favor of regulation. Including, providing coverage for seminars and congresses on the topic.”
Today, with social media and electronic publications, a network with broader news about the regulation of gambling has emerged, highlights Gildo Mazza: “Due to the enactment of the Sports Betting Law, No. 13,756, in 2018, under the Michel Temer government, the sector has been increased. Although it is not yet regulated it was a breakthrough and the press cannot hide this fact. So much so that I am sure that, if the whole sector is regulated, the same newspapers and magazines, TV and radio networks, which today are against it, will create special editions on the subject with a positive outlook. They will want to bill. Especially because the financial movement is already a reality. For example, more than half of the teams in the “A” and “B” series of the Brazilian Football Championship are sponsored by sports betting houses.”
The journalist for the news portal Games Magazine Brasil also recalls that: “The major media outlets around the world participate directly and indirectly in business structures set up for sports and culture-oriented bets. The best example is the MGM Resorts Casino. Many communication entrepreneurs in Brazil have already realized that, by not having similar structures in Brazil, they are losing millions and millions of dollars. Just as they lost millions during the Olympic Games (2016) and the football World Cup (2014).”
I finish publishing this series of articles dedicated to the regulation of games administered by the private sector, with the feeling of mission accomplished. We expanded the frontiers of the debate, former advocates of the cause met new actors, themes from the past were revisited and new ones were introduced.
Let's hope that the current and future editors of O Globo, Folha de São Paulo, O Estadão, Veja magazine, TV Globo, TV Record, Rede TV and SBT, among other important press vehicles to address the issue by giving a voice to all actors in the sector democratically. I wish that Brazilian journalists and editors will be able to have a peaceful sleep. Let not live the terror of journalist Chico Otavio from O Globo who must interrupt his sleep, wake up every morning, to see if he doesn't have a jogo do bicho operator or a croupier under his bed.
LUIZ CARLOS PRESTES FILHO
Executive Director of the newspaper Tribuna da Imprensa Livre; Filmmaker, graduated in Documentary Film Direction for Television and Cinema by the State Film Institute of the Soviet Union; Specialist in Cultural Economics and Local Economic Development; He coordinated studies on the contribution of Culture to the GDP of the State of Rio de Janeiro (2002) and on the productive chains of the Economy of Music (2005) and Carnival (2009); He is the author of the book “The Greatest Show on Earth - 30 years of the Sambadrome” (2015).
