How are Brazil, North Korea and Cyprus similar? At first glance nothing, but the trio belongs to that minority of countries where casinos and gambling are illegal. The richest and most populous country in Latin America is preparing to leave that club, lift a 78-year-old veto and embrace the world of betting with an eye on money. Need to increase tax collection. After three decades of parliamentary debate, the legislative proposal to legalize gambling is making its way, having just been approved in committee in the Senate. If the plenary session of the upper house supports it, it will mean the opening of casinos and legalizing or bug gamea gambling game created 130 years ago that has been popular for decades among the poorest Brazilians and has a close relationship with Carnival.
Brazilian authorities banned gambling in 1946, the same year that current President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was born. He has already announced his intention to pass the law once it is approved by the Senate. For now, the plenary session has not been convened, but the debate on legalisation has not gone that far either.
If the law is finally approved, gambling, betting on horse races and the game of the bug (animal game, in Portuguese) will no longer be irregularities punishable by fines. It will also allow casinos to be opened (one per State and a few more in the most populated and Amazonian ones), but only in tourist areas and hotel complexes with more than a hundred rooms. River casinos and bingo houses are also planned.
He bug game It no longer has as many fans as in the past, but it is still part of the popular culture of many Brazilians among the poorest, as he explained to the newspaper. Folha de S.Paulo the historian Luiz Antonio Simas, who is preparing a book about the deep-rooted game. Many Brazilians are not even aware that it is an irregular practice. As in Brazil there is no rule without exception, it is legal in one state, Paraíba.
Created in 1892 by the baron who founded the Rio de Janeiro zoo, this game where each number is represented by an animal was banned more than a century ago, as happened with samba and other cultural manifestations of former slaves. Both survived the persecution. Proof of its influence, only in the last World Cup did the Brazilian men’s soccer team field a player with 24 (the number of the deer) because it is associated with homosexuality.
The priority objective is to increase collection at a time when the Government is looking for new ways to increase the entry of funds into public accounts. The author of the parliamentary proposal estimates that it could mean some 22,000 million reais annually (4,000 million dollars) in taxes, both for companies and for the winners of the awards, to be distributed between the coffers of the Union, the State and the municipalities. He estimates that, in addition, 1.5 million jobs would be created.
The prohibition of gambling is not total, there are some lotteries organized by the State. And then, the very popular bets on the Internet. This Friday, advertisements proliferated on social networks to bet online on Brazil-Paraguay in the Copa América. Thanks to the Pix instant payment system, it is very simple, you no longer need to insert your credit card. This has facilitated the rapid expansion of this type of game in what is presumed to be the country of soccer. Betting companies, as in other countries, sponsor a good part of the clubs.
And all this movement has translated into a business that in Brazil is around 150 billion reais a year (27 billion dollars), according to estimates. Every year 200 companies open in a regulated sector since 2018, but which until now has managed not to pay taxes in this country. This 2024 will be the first time.
The bill to legalize gambling was approved by 14 votes to 12 in the Senate’s Constitution and Justice Committee.
Among those opposed to legalization, Bolsonarism, evangelical churches and civil society organizations. There is a fear that gambling will trigger, so a registry will be created of people banned from gambling. But there is also the fear that organized crime will become strong in the sector and use it to launder money or evade taxes.
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