Voting on bill that legalizes gambling in Brazil could be postponed until October – Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce

Bill 2,234 of 2022, which legalizes casinos, bingo and jogo do bicho in Brazil, may be voted on in the Senate after the municipal elections in October. The decision to postpone it was made during a meeting of leaders this Thursday (8). In order to comply with an agreement with opponents of the topic, the president of the House, Rodrigo Pacheco, put the matter up for thematic debate in the Plenary.

Some points were debated in the special session. The rapporteur, Senator Irajá (PSD-TO), who defends the approval of the bill, presented strong and well-established arguments about the benefits of the activity.

The Secretary of Infrastructure, Credit and Investment in Tourism of the Ministry of Tourism, Carlos Henrique Sobral, also highlighted the importance of approving the bill.

According to Sobral, the expectation, if the proposal becomes law, is that Brazil will generate more than 650,000 jobs with the activity and have an increase of R$74 billion (US$ 13.2bn) in revenue.

“We will have an investment of R$66 billion (US$ 11.75bn), more than 1,000% increase in investment. And the GDP, of 8%, we will reach 9.2% or perhaps double digits, which is our goal. The tendency is, with these destinations with integrated resorts, to achieve economic development, with Las Vegas, Macau and Singapore being emblematic.”

Regarding the decision to postpone, the leader of the opposition, Marcos Rogério (PL-RO), said in a press conference that “on the subject of gaming, the move is for after the [municipal] election.”

The bills for renegotiating the states’ debt, the Proposed Amendment to the Constitution for Amnesty on the debt of political parties and the bill for recharging the payroll are expected to be voted on in the Plenary next week.

It may be on the agenda

Even with the decision to postpone the vote, taken at the leaders’ meeting this Thursday (8), it is still possible that Bill 2,234/2022 will be included on the agenda. In a conversation with GMB, one of the participants in the thematic debate on the bill, stated that in a conversation with Senator Irajá, the rapporteur for the matter, he received information that the Bill could be included, depending on further negotiations with leaders and opponents of the matter.

The purpose of placing the topic on the thematic debate was to make room for the bill to be voted on as quickly as possible. The President of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), has been stating in his latest statements that the Bill has been in process in Parliament for over 30 years and that the time has come to vote. All that remains is to wait for the negotiations to actually be on the agenda.

Via GMB