The legalization of games of fortune and the reopening of casinos in Brazil, when attempted in the 1980s, caused a great stir, having suffered tenacious opposition and resistance from conservative sectors of our society. Result: it did not succeed because of the possibility that they would become games of chance.
However, games of chance (although they always come first with the restrictive and pejorative connotation of an addiction), they — before any other reflection on the subject — mean in a broader and truer sense: tourism (which always brings foreign exchange) to the country ; fun for leisure time; collection of new and strong taxes; and, finally, but not lastly, the creation of new jobs, with a formal contract, very welcome, by the way, in the current situation of the country.
In 1981, participating in the legal advice of then senator Hugo Ramos (of nostalgic memory), we had the privilege of collaborating in the drafting of the Senate Law Project nº 302, of October 14, 1981, which provided "on the exploitation of gambling and the reopening of casinos in the Federal Capital; in cities with a minimum population of five million inhabitants, in climatic, spa and hydrotherapy resorts: taking other measures."
From the justification of the aforementioned Project nº 302, from 1981, we transcribe the first two paragraphs, which offer us a reliable portrait of the socioeconomic situation then in force, so that we can contextualize the legislative work that, at the time, was carried out in favor of the reopening of casinos in Brazil.
"The present proposal is the result of an examination of the bills presented to the Chamber of Deputies and the draft bill offered to the Honorable Minister of Justice, by a commission made up of Júlio Gulger Simões, Ciro Botelli de Carvalho and Adolfo Mantovani, at the end of the Week of Studies on the Reopening of Casinos in Climatic, Spa and Hydrotherapy Resorts, which took place in the SESI Auditorium, in the capital of São Paulo, from December 1st to 5th, 1980.
Professor Luiz Felizardo Barroso collaborated in it, who collected valuable input from people familiar with the subject, notably hoteliers and entrepreneurs, all with the aim of providing the project with a structure capable of addressing the social problems involved in it, allocating its results to the education and health, specifically the education of the exceptional and the treatment of cancer patients, so lacking in broader resources, capable of collaborating in the solution of such serious problems."
The proposal, which provides for the legalization of gambling and the reopening of casinos in the country, was ready to be analyzed by the Plenary of the Chamber of Deputies, but it continued to divide opinions in the House. Bill nº 186/2014, by Senator Ciro Nogueira (PP-PI), authorized the exploitation of "games of fortune", online or in person, throughout the national territory.
As we have seen from 1981 to this part, there were numerous bills aimed at legalizing gambling in the country.
At the time, the Participatory Legislation Committee of the Chamber of Deputies placed the matter in a public hearing for later approval of gambling in Brazil.
In that legislative house, the approval of the legalization of gambling, as well as the reopening of casinos in the country, had a strong ally. It was its president, deputy Rodrigo Maia, "as long as the practice was confined and the operation of casinos took place only in resorts."
The then mayor Marcelo Crivella, although a bishop (licensed) of the Universal Church, had been defending the regulation of gambling in the city of Rio de Janeiro.
There are those who claim that, although in Brazil it has not been possible to obtain – despite several favorable advances – the legalization of games of fortune (pejoratively called games of chance), it is where, clandestinely, most gambles are carried out, taking for granted, however, that the legalization of the activity, by the action of a simple natural law, is the most efficient way of ending clandestinity.
On the other hand, the assertion that gambling is simply a vice that disrupts the social fabric lacks a demonstration of real facts, as the countries of the world that have legally adopted the practice of gambling - and are almost all from the civilized world —, with the necessary precautions, they have never had problems in their social organism, on the contrary.
The city of Macau, a Chinese province of Portuguese colonization, for example, according to a recent television news broadcast, is considered the capital of gambling in the world, having earned, in the last year, three times more than its most serious competitor, the city of Las Vegas, in the United States of America, with 40% of its population, around 500 thousand inhabitants, working directly or indirectly for the gaming industry.
Let's see if this time, with the passage in the Chamber of Deputies of a new bill aiming at the legalization of games of chance — despite the deleterious action of the criers of the negative outcome of precursor ideas —, however, with the necessary dose of fearlessness of our parliamentarians, we will finally be able to legalize this controversial activity in the country, as well as the reopening of casinos, for the good of Brazil.
Luiz Felizardo Barroso
Post-doctoral professor, president of Cobrart Gestão de Ativos, holder of Advocacia Felizardo Barroso & Associados and member of Academia Fluminense de Letras.
Source: Conjur
