The vote in the first round had 65 votes in favor and 1 against. In the second round, 62 favorable votes were computed, with no contrary votes. PEC 43/2022 had a favorable vote by the rapporteur, Senator Ciro Nogueira (PP-PI), and now goes on to be enacted, with a date to be set.
The rapporteur stated that lotteries also provide “banking services and citizenship to Brazilians who do not have access to the banking network.”
“We are talking here about a service that is undeniably of a public nature, which includes simple operations, from receiving bills, taxes, deposits, withdrawals, to the payment of benefits and social programs that are so important in our country. (...) Today, we do justice to lottery permit holders for the relevant services they provide to society in view of the investments made and hard work over the years,” said Nogueira.
The President of the Senate and Congress, Rodrigo Pacheco, declared his support for the approval of the matter, although unable to register his vote for presiding over the session.
According to the approved text, regardless of the start date, all “accreditations, contracts, additives and other forms of adjustment of lottery permission intended to enable the sale of lottery services, disciplined by law or in other instruments of scope, will be extended, regardless of the start date. specific”, which are in force on the date of publication of the new constitutional provision. All these lottery agents will be guaranteed the possibility of an “additional period of validity, counted from the end of the term of the current instrument.”
Also called the Lottery PEC, the proposal was approved in the Chamber in December 2022. The PEC is an initiative of Deputy Fausto Pinato (PP-SP) and was originally processed in the Chamber as PEC 142/2015, providing only for the extension of existing contracts before of the 1988 Constitution, if the contract was for an indefinite period.
However, the deputies approved the text with changes that expanded those affected, that is, benefiting more than 70 thousand lottery shops, both those that operate under the permission regime (which won bids organized by Caixa Econômica Federal) and those that were only accredited.
The accredited group includes 6,310 lottery retailers with contracts prior to the 1988 Constitution, which did not go through a bidding process. These are individuals or legal entities that only received accreditation to act as resellers of lottery tickets, a practice permitted at the time.
Juridical insecurity
In his opinion, Nogueira explains that Law 8,987, of 1995 – which deals with the concession and permission regime for the provision of public services provided for in the Constitution –, determined the extinction of lottery grants made without bidding.
But Law 13,177, of 2015, granted validity of 20 years, starting in 2013, to lottery service contracts granted for an indefinite period. However, the measure has been questioned by the Attorney General's Office (PGR), which filed a direct action of unconstitutionality at the Federal Supreme Court (STF).
Senator Ciro argues that the permissions and accreditations granted before the 1988 Constitution and the entry into force of the 1995 law are a perfect legal act and cannot be undone by a subsequent law. "Legal certainty is an ironclad clause engraved in the Federal Constitution: the law will not harm the acquired right, the perfect legal act and the res judicata," stated the rapporteur.
The question of the validity of lottery services is the object of deep controversy and legal uncertainty, according to the rapporteur: "it is therefore necessary to approve a norm with constitutionality status to remedy this situation of uncertainty."
The PEC can provide legal certainty to 75 thousand permit holders across the country, adds Ciro.
Source: Senate Agency
