Brazil passed up, this Wednesday (4), the possibility of approving the legalization of casinos, bingos and jogo do bicho in the country. After numerous demonstrations against the matter, the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG) informed that he would put to a nominal vote the requests for an urgent request for voting and the request to remove the matter from the agenda.
Given the president's position, numerous opposing demonstrations were presented in order to pressure Pacheco to suspend voting on the project.
When passing the floor to the rapporteur of the matter in the House, senator Irajá (PSD-TO), he stated that Brazil is facing the dilemma of living with gambling in controlling organized crime or dealing with the issue of responsible, controlled and supervised by public authorities and collecting taxes.
“The matter is mature, having already been discussed in the Constitution and Justice Committee and in a public hearing. It is an economic and social agenda, in the interest of Brazil and not a religious agenda.”
Irajá once again recalled that the project has broad support from the government, with favorable expressions in technical notes from the Ministry of Finance, Development, Labor and Tourism, as well as civil society bodies.
He also pointed out that of the 38 OECD countries, only one, Iceland, has not approved responsible gambling. And that in the G20, of the largest economies on the planet, only Brazil and Indonesia, a Muslim country, legal gambling was not approved.
Even in the face of these arguments, the rapporteur asked President Rodrigo Pacheco to remove the matter from the agenda, so that the appropriate questions can be made to the ministries, as required in the House, so that only after this can it be processed again.
Rodrigo Pacheco accepted the request and closed the discussion, making it clear that the new Senate Board will be responsible for handling the matter. Requests for information will be sent within 30 days for a response.
Only after this and with the resumption of legislative work in 2025 will it be possible to analyze whether Bill 2,234 will return to the Senate Committees or directly to the Plenary.
Source: GMB
