The video published by the Senate on its home page, on tvsenado and on House's YouTube channel, opens with summarized information about the bill 442/91 approved in the Chamber of Deputies, and indicates that the topic reaches the Senate causing controversy.
The president of Instituto Jogo Legal, Magnho José, said that it is necessary to have laws and regulations that allow citizens to bet on the watchful eyes of the State.
The report heard Senator Eduardo Girão (Pode-CE), opposed to legalization, defending in an almost amateur way his opinion that gaming brings “drug and arms trafficking and child prostitution. And the issue of addiction, which causes people to lose their values, jobs and dignity.”
Another senator who seems not to know the dynamics of the sector around the world even stated that “international experience shows that in many countries, such as in the East, large casinos are used for money laundering, drug trafficking and prostitution.” Carlos Viana also says that “the inspection of this sector, which moves a lot of money, is very difficult.”
He seems, with these opinions, not to know the big resorts with casinos that operate in Macau and that, in addition to being strictly supervised by the local Superintendence of Control of Gaming, have to submit to strict laws of the Chinese central government. Not to mention that the main operators, not only in Macau, but also in other jurisdictions in the East, are major international players that have compliance rules that put them in the spotlight around the world and would not put themselves at risk of losing their concessions. Perhaps, when the parliamentarian speaks of “East”, he uses the term to refer to an unknown location and far enough away not to be analyzed nor to serve as a good reference on the gaming market.
Senator Kajuru only admits that the issue is complex, divides opinions and needs to be well discussed.
In the opposite direction to the opponents and with great propriety, Senator Angelo Coronel (PSD-BA) presents himself, who says that the legalization of gaming in Brazil must be considered from the point of view of an economic agenda and not of customs. “Gaming in all locations where it exists generate a large amount of resources for the economy, representing a significant share of GDP. In Italy, 1.6% of GDP comes from gaming. If we make a comparison with Brazil, we can have a revenue of around R$ 50 billion, which could be of great value to maintain social programs and others that may benefit society,” he said.
For Angelo Coronel, “resistance exists and is normal, but I always say that we are not creating anything, because gaming already exists. We are just looking to legalize it so that players pay taxes.”
Regarding the issue of public security, the report heard Leonardo Sant'Anna, a specialist in the area, who stated that the legalization of the activity can benefit the population “and we can bring good practices from other nations that have been successful in this modality when we are in a new technological period. Today, there is nothing left to do when it comes to possible effective monitoring so that there are no deviations and that organized crime scenarios are not promoted. It is possible to have several elements that can be used together with all the money raised, for the benefit of the Brazilian population,” he concluded.
Source: GMB
