When welcoming Bacelar (Pode/BA), Gildo Mazza was surprised by a heated speech in favor of GMB and the followers of the news portal, the gaming sector and individual freedoms. “What a joy to chat with you and all the followers on this very important site, which does a wonderful job on defending the gaming sector and individual freedom. This is a passionate topic, and it is closely linked to the formation of society. Gaming has been around since the man started living in groups. Archaeologists have already discovered pyramid-shaped dices dating back to 4,000 years before Christ in Mesopotamia, as well as finding game boards in Tutankhamen's tomb. In other words, gaming is an ancient activity. The Olympics generated bets, in Ancient Greece, as well as the fights in Ancient Rome.”
The deputy admits that “hypocrisy reigns in this discussion, as well as prejudice. We need to face this because no society has the gaming versus no gaming dichotomy. The non-gaming hypothesis does not exist. What exists is legal gaming vs. illegal gaming. There is a love-hate relationship with gaming in Brazil. Since the colony, we have a moment of liberation and prohibition. We went back to the end of the Empire to remember our dear Baron de Drumond, who created the jogo do bicho to save the zoo in Rio de Janeiro,” he comments, also stating that he will present a bill in the Chamber of Deputies transforming the jogo do bicho into intangible heritage of the Brazilian people.
For him, the jogo do bicho is in the culture of society and generates many jobs and income. “I recently spoke with several entrepreneurs of this sector and asked them if they had suspended the payment of their collaborators. None of them did this, paying all their employees in full,” he says. According to him, it is absurd "a country with negative economic growth and which does not generate jobs, moving towards high inflation, giving up fundraising.”
Bacelar says to ask the so-called ‘liberals’: “Is it up to the State to tell Gildo Mazza what he is going to do in his leisure time? Individual freedoms must be respected,” he decrees. According to the deputy, some religious leaders are against it, but they should be limited to religious matters. “They do not have the right, in this condition, to say what society is going to do or not do. A friend of mine used to say that the pastor is concerned that the faithful will stop collecting tithe because of betting,” he says.
Asked whether parliamentarians have the courage to address the issue and approve a regulatory framework for gaming, Bacelar was emphatic when he said that “we have very old legislation regarding gambling. The jogo do bicho was banned in 1941 by President Getúlio Vargas, who was a great player. Casinos were banned in 1946 by President Dutra, for said religious reasons. Since then, only one legislation has advanced: that of gambling in hands of the government, which creates many games, but inefficient. The Parliamentary Front did a survey and 51% of the deputies and senators are in favor of releasing all types of games. We were close to approving this,” he recalls.
“We approved Bill 442/91 at the Commission and it is one of the most advanced proposals in the world. We listened to players from around the world and managed to build a consensus. It had everything to be approved, but the entry of Sheldon Adelson in the lobby by the resort casino model, promising investment in of US$ 8 billion in two ventures, slowed the progress of our work, since he did not want other types of games to be approved.”
Bacelar is emphatic in saying that the other games are not incompatible with the large enterprises composed by casinos in resorts. “How am I going to tell a jogo do bicho entrepreneur or bingo businessman that we are going to legalize casinos for foreign entrepreneurs and ban other verticals? There are 400 thousand jobs in these sectors and what am I going to say to this worker?”, he asks.
“After that, the same businessman came knocking on the door of Jair Bolsonaro and Paulo Guedes asking for the same. The president himself was pressured when he was with Donald Trump to support only the Las Vegas model.”
According to the Deputy, there are two impediments. “One is the religious, whose speech is incompatible and dissociated from reality, as all churches hold bingo and raffles to renovate their facilities. Another is the discourse of a portion of the left that speaks of addiction. Ludopathy is terrible, but it manifests itself in only 1% of the players, while alcoholism, much more destructive, affects 10% of the population. And nobody proposes to close the beverage industry,” he analyzes.
He further asks: “How can an activity that is present in all developed and democratic countries not be implemented in Brazil? To end hypocrisy, a project should come at the initiative of the Executive. It would be much easier for the President of the Republic to take this initiative. But I don't believe that the current one will do that,” he says.
“I have long advocated, together with the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Arthur Lira, that the topic should return to the agenda and he has always been receptive to discussing the matter, and that cheers me up a lot”, he says. Bill 442/91 is ready to be voted, as well as Senator Ciro Nogueira's bill, although the first is, in the deputy's assessment, more advanced. "Both are ready to be guided and it will be up to the other House to continue after the vote in one of them", he comments.
On how to convince President Arthur Lira to put on the agenda, Bacelar says that “the approval of society already exists, as well as of the parliamentarians, who are also favorable. So, we have to focus on the topic, which can generate more than R$ 20 billion in revenue. This is half of the emergency aid. A country that needs to generate jobs and income. With part of that money, we can invest in shaping Brazil's image abroad, in education, security and social security. There will be more than 600 thousand workers with a formal contract and will contribute to social security. We cannot ignore this, as it is close to irrationality,” he testifies.
According to him, a new ingredient for the approval of a law for all types of games is his appointment as President of the Tourism Commission. “It is essential for Brazilian tourism to approve gaming. Not that the casino attracts tourists, but to recognize the casino as tourist equipment. Nobody goes to Paris, London, or Lisbon to play. But they go there and stay a few more days and go to casinos,” he says.
Bacelar admits that casinos are not the solution to all ills. “It is a very-high investment and casinos integrated with resorts need two thousand rooms to have the expected profitability and this is not built overnight. Not to mention that we will not have these resorts with casinos in every state. The Minister of Tourism went further. He even admitted that only Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo - and I add Minas Gerais and Bahia - as states to receive investments like this. Personally, I defend the Uruguay model, of urban casinos, which are much faster to be implemented and start to generate income in taxes and jobs,” he comments.
The deputy makes an analysis of the movement that gaming generates in Brazil. “Lotteries have a turnover of around R$ 14.5 billion, that is, this is the result of legal gambling in Brazil, while illegal gambling has a turnover of around R$ 20 billion. The jogo do bicho alone generates more than R$ 12 billion. In other words, we handled around R$ 35 billion, collecting only with lotteries and turf. We can exceed this reaching R$ 60 billion, which will represent a lot for the Brazilian economy.”
According to him, the compliance rules existing in companies that operate gaming around the world are extremely strict and no one would enter Brazil, with the regulated market, without complying with the same practices. "You cannot think of money laundering in such a controlled activity and with such high taxes, as is practiced in the gaming sector," he defines.
As a final message to his peers in the Chamber of Deputies and in the Senate, Bacelar says: “Parliamentary ladies and gentlemen, we either legalize or the illegal will take even more. Whoever wants to fight corruption needs the light to end it. Gambling on illegality will maintain corruption in all spheres. Legalization gives society security. Only the approval of the regulatory framework for gaming through the legalization of all types of verticals can generate investments, tax collection and immediate jobs for a country that needs it so much.”
Source: Exclusive GMB
