Finally, Brazil seems to wake up to correct a historical mistake and, through a Bill that has everything it needs to be approved by the National Congress, it will legalize all types of betting games, including an activity that has been around for over 130 years – the jogo do bicho. Bill 2234/22 also legalizes casinos, bingo and horse betting and allows integration between casinos and high-end resorts.
Authored by former federal deputy Renato Vianna (MDB-SC), and which is reported in the Senate by senator Irajá (PSD-TO), defender of the project, the PL has already been approved by the Chamber of Deputies and the Constitution Committee, Justice and Citizenship (CCJ) of the Senate.
It has received enthusiastic support from ministers in President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's government, including Fernando Haddad (Finance), Luiz Marinho (Labour), Celso Sabino (Tourism) and André Fufuca (Sports). They have all been highlighting the importance of the project and the meaning of its approval: the regulation of the game, well disciplined, with the guarantee of supervision by the Brazilian State and the protection of citizens, the attraction of investments and the qualified generation of jobs and income.
The bill is the result of society's understanding, the government's efforts and the maturity of parliamentarians who, together, can stimulate tourism, attract investment and guarantee social and economic gains.
It is also the recognition that decades-old prohibitive legal measures have proven ineffective in curbing and criminalizing gambling, including jogo do bicho and activities related to it.
President Lula has already indicated that, if the project is approved by Congress with an agreement between the parties, he should sanction it. Rightly, the president pointed out what he called “hypocrisy”, a criminalization of practices widespread throughout the country.
It is a very important project with well-defined rules. The text authorizes the installation of casinos in tourist centers or integrated leisure complexes, under the limit of one casino in each state and the Federal District, with the exception of São Paulo, which could have up to three casinos, and Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Amazonas and Pará, whose expected limit is two casinos.
Gaming houses may also operate on sea and river vessels, which will follow specific rules. The proposal also establishes rules for the game of bingo in card and electronic formats, and allows in each state the accreditation of one legal entity for every 700 thousand inhabitants to operate the jogo do bicho. Horse racing may be operated by turf entities accredited by the Ministry of Agriculture, which may also operate, at the same time, bingo and video bingo games.
Within the same effort, the government is advancing in regulating the fixed-odd betting sector, with new rules that will come into effect in 2025 and will require companies to have their headquarters in Brazil and not in tax havens.
Financial and social justifications
Now, with the approval of Bill 2234/22, culture and reality will impose themselves on the original preference of legislators. The justifications for overcoming this long period of criminalization are not limited to its historical value.
For example, according to estimates presented to the Special Committee on the Regulatory Framework for Gambling in Brazil, of the Chamber of Deputies, by the Instituto Jogo Legal (IJL) – a non-governmental organization that produces studies and research on games and lotteries –, only gambling bicho employed, in 2016, around 450 thousand people informally, more than 20 million people bet daily, and the activity earned around R$12 billion per year. At that time, the IJL presented an estimate, according to which annual tax revenue could exceed the R$71 billion mark, considering all modalities. Only in relation to the types of games provided for in the PL, the amount raised would reach R$27 billion.
Legalization will formalize the employment of these thousands of people, allow compliance with labor legislation and encourage social inclusion – after all, people with low education and low income make up the majority of workers who work in the game.
The installation of physical stores, no longer clandestine, will also ensure investments, security and infrastructure for poorer regions. Considering the maximum rate of the Intervention Contribution in the Economic Domain levied on the commercialization of games and betting (Cide-Jogos), at the level of 17%, only the jogo do bicho should allow an annual collection of R$ 2.04 billion, without count the Gaming and Betting Inspection Tax (Tafija) and other tax obligations that involve the legal exercise of the activity.
According to the Ministry of Tourism, just one project aimed at installing integrated resorts can mobilize around R$1 billion. No wonder this is what countries like the United States, and our neighbors Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina do today – which even welcome Brazilians in search of their casinos.
Transparency and security
The arguments therefore go beyond national borders. Of the 20 largest economies in the world, according to the most recent reports from the World Economic Outlook, only Brazil, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia do not operate the gaming and betting sector.
Among the member countries of the United Nations (UN), only 37 prohibit games of chance, according to the survey carried out by IJL. As Minister Haddad recently highlighted, all OECD countries have regulated gambling. Worldwide, more than 90% of countries have done the same.
These are non-trivial numbers. But it is also worth mentioning the fact that legalization is closely associated with increasing the transparency of operations and the safety of bets and bettors.
Showing numbers, evidence and contradictions, an academic article published in the magazine Direito e Liberdade showed that regulating gambling will bring benefits to consumers and bettors, enabling the existence of control, limiting profits and imposing the maintenance of assistance programs for compulsive gamblers.
The article also demonstrated that our courts, guided by the Federal Supreme Court and the Superior Court of Justice, have constantly expressed their desire to protect players and bettors in the face of incoherent legislation, “which requires legalization or regulation, but allows official State bodies to create, guide and support a frightening number of lottery modalities.”
Furthermore, legalization will inhibit the practice of illicit activities, given the need to comply with regulatory provisions, coupled with the sector's lack of motivation in seeking association with organized crime, as it already carries out a legal activity.
Likewise, it increases the penalties applicable to the illegal exercise of the activity. Who hasn’t watched, scared, the documentary series “Vale o Escrito”? Created by Felipe Awi, directed by Ricardo Calil and artistically supervised by Pedro Bial, the series delves into the game war in Rio de Janeiro. Internal fights, fraud, arrests, revenge and murders that are organized and fueled by prohibition. The obvious was seen: non-legalization produces the expansion of organized crime itself.
Legalizing gambling means, therefore, recognizing a centuries-old and traditional practice such as jogo do bicho, regulating bingos and betting, generating formalized jobs, promoting dignity for the thousands of people who work and betting, increasing tax collection, ensure transparency and security for bets and bettors and, last but not least, curb their association with organized crime. It is difficult to find any change in legislation with so many arguments in its favor.
José Dirceu
Lawyer and political activist, former president of the PT and chief minister of the Civil House during the first Lula government, in 2003.
