The Lula government has been making efforts to put Bill 3626/2023 to a vote, which regulates sports betting in Brazil and is trying, through some of its interlocutors, to have online gambling re-included in the project.
The matter is part of the economic agenda of the Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, to increase revenue and the Executive has already realized the importance of not only voting on the matter, but mainly the return of iGaming to the bill.
Previously estimated at R$ 1.6 billion (US$ 327m) in revenue as stated in the budget law, the government itself understands that the value was undervalued and that, as the rapporteur of the matter in the Senate Angelo Coronel (PSD-BA) said, it could reach R$10 billion (US$ 2.05bn) in 2024.
Aware of this, the government is seeking, through some of its interlocutors, to vote on the matter before the end of the legislative year this Friday (22). The government leader in the Chamber, José Guimarães (PT-CE) presented an urgent request for a vote on the bill.
At the same time, Arthur Lira (PP-AL) tries to convince the evangelical group to accept to include iGaming again in the project. Yesterday (19), he met all afternoon with deputies who support that decision and with rapporteur Adolfo Viana (PSDB-BA), to make fine adjustments to the report.
Furthermore, he received parliamentarians opposed to the project and who are part of the evangelical bench to try to reach an agreement that would allow online gaming to return to the project. The matter, which was to be voted on in this Tuesday's (19) deliberative session, ended up not being included on the agenda due to the resistance to the return of iGaming.
Lira's meetings with the evangelical bench lasted until late at night, so resistance remains strong. Representative Sóstenes Cavalcante (PL-RJ), one of the most conservative leaders of the evangelical bench, is the one who represents the group in discussions with Lira and rapporteur Adolfo Viana.
Until the publication of this article, the agenda for today's session had not been published and Adolfo Viana's report was also not made available. The indication from some interlocutors to GMB is that the meetings will continue on Wednesday (20) morning and that, given the difficulty of reinclusion of iGaming in the project, there may not be time to close an agreement. In this case, the bill may not even be voted on this year.
Source: GMB
