PSD parliamentarian, Margareth Buzetti, declared her support for casinos in Brazil, with the condition that the use of a credit card is mandatory to avoid the practice of money laundering. The statement was made after the approval last week of Bill 2,234/2022 in the Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ) of the Senate, which authorizes the operation of casinos and bingos in the country, legalizes also jogo do bicho and allows betting on races of horses.
In her defense, Buzetti highlighted the importance of implementing measures to combat money laundering. “Look, I have some restrictions on bingo, but the casino doesn't, because you can only do it with a credit card. Because then the persons spend and cannot launder money. They will pay taxes on this, they cannot launder money,” she argued.
“But if one thing happens, everything will happen. So you can't separate it. For example, I was against electronic games. I think this is absurd for our youth. But it passed, right? It’s democracy, the majority wins,” she concluded.
With a tight result of 14 votes to 12, the project now goes to the Senate Board of Directors, which will decide when the matter will be discussed in the plenary. The proposal, which was being processed in the Chamber of Deputies since 1991, has already been approved by the deputies.
Project supporters estimate that its approval could attract more than R$100 billion (US$ 18.45bn) in investments and generate around 1.5 million direct and indirect jobs. Furthermore, annual revenue could reach R$22 billion (US$ 4.05bn) , to be distributed among states, municipalities and the Union.
However, the proposal faces resistance from some parliamentarians, who claim that the legalization of gambling could encourage gaming addiction and encourage criminal activities such as money laundering, trafficking and prostitution.
The project establishes specific rules for different types of games, including numerical limits for commercial establishments that can offer casinos, bingo and jogo do bicho, aiming to facilitate inspection by tax authorities. Despite this, Senator Buzetti maintains her opposition to the legalization of bingos due to the difficulty of controlling the flow of money in these establishments.
Source: GMB
