Lucíola Aor Vasconcelos participated in a public hearing at the Committee on Financial Oversight and Control to discuss the company. Caixa Loterias was created in 2016 as a subsidiary of Caixa. Last April, the bank's Board of Directors approved the migration of all lotteries to the new company.
According to the executive, the creation of the subsidiary allows them to focus better on the business, which has been undergoing changes in recent years, with the emergence of virtual games and the 2020 decision by the Supreme Federal Court (STF) breaking the Union's monopoly on lottery exploitation. The measure opened up space for states to create their own drawings.
"We have to understand that lotteries are a different activity from banking," said the subsidiary's executive. "So, what we did is to bring from a 'little area' within a vice presidency, at Caixa, to a company exclusively for this, with exclusive structure, with exclusive focus," she declared.
Situation of lottery retailers
Lucíola stated that the new products should improve the business environment for the 13,300 lottery agencies that sell Caixa games. Today, according to reports from deputies who participated in the hearing, lottery retailers live with low financial returns.
Deputy Darci de Matos (PSD-SC) said that lottery retailers are "cornered," with increasingly lower earnings due to competition from virtual bets, including from Caixa itself. He advocated for lotteries to be authorized to create their own websites to market the products.
"If we only stay in the physical realm, we will die," Darci de Matos said. Deputy Reimont (PT-RJ) also called for measures to strengthen lottery agents. The executive of Caixa Loterias stated that a product benefiting lottery retailers is already in operation, the Caixa Pool. It allows virtual group bets organized by the lottery agencies.
Privatization
Deputy Tadeu Veneri (PT-PR), who requested the public hearing, expressed concern about the loss of state control of Caixa Loterias. He recalled that the STF decided that subsidiaries of state-owned companies can be privatized without authorization from the National Congress.
According to Veneri, a potential privatization would jeopardize social programs that receive funding from lotteries. "This concerns us a lot because we know that today the lottery is one of the main financiers of government social programs," said the deputy.
In 2023, Caixa's lotteries raised R$ 23.4 billion (US$ 4.46bn). Of this amount, R$ 9.2 billion (US$ 1.75bn) - 39.2% of the total - was allocated to federal government programs in the areas of social security, sports, culture, public security, education, and health.
Lucíola informed that there is no forecast of loss of state control and that the management of the lottery network continues within Caixa Econômica Federal.
Source: Agência Câmara de Notícias
