The Brazilian Senate’s Constitution and Justice Commission will vote this week on whether land-based casinos should be legalised throughout the country.
According to Agência Senado, the Brazilian Senate Agency, Bill PL 2.234/2022 will be addressed by the CCJ on the morning of April 17.
First presented two years ago by former Deputy Renato Vianna, the bill would authorise, “among other modalities”, the operation of casinos and bingos, horse racing and the lottery game jogo do bicho.
The report also states that the rapporteur, Senator Irajá, is in favour of the bill.
Agência Senado noted: “The text authorises the installation of casinos in tourist centres 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, in which the limit foreseen for each state is two casinos.”
In addition, gaming houses will be able to operate on sea and river vessels following specific rules, while all casinos must “demonstrate a minimum paid-up share capital of at least R$100m”, and can be licensed for 30 years.
As previously mentioned, the bill would also regulate land-based and online bingo, allowing for “each state the accreditation of one legal entity for every 700 thousand inhabitants to operate the game”. Licenses would be valid for 25 years and renewable for the same period.
Racecourses may also soon be able to operate horse racing betting. To be accredited by the Ministry of Agriculture, these locations could also operate bingo and video bingo games at the same time.
Agência Senado stated that within his report, Irajá argued that “the project seeks to transfer to State control a practice that today constitutes a misdemeanour,” before referring to statistics on the legal and illegal betting market to demonstrate that “gambling already constitutes a relevant economic activity”.
Amendments offered by senators were rejected by the rapporteur, who then offered a wording amendment to replace the mentions of “Ministry of Economy” with “Ministry of Finance”.
