Zona de Azar Brazil – Brazil: Rapporteur of the Casino Bill Says Voting Awaits “Temperature to Drop”

Brazil.- October 22, 2024 www.zonadeazar.com The rapporteur of the Casino Bill, Senator Irajá Silvestre Filho (PSD-TO), stated on Friday, the 18th, at an event in São Paulo, that the proposal is waiting for the “temperature to drop” before being put to a vote in the Senate and mentioned the need for work to “change” public opinion on the matter.

The text passed in the Constitution and Justice Commission (CCJ) in June with a narrow score — 14 in favor and 12 against — and aims to legalize casinos, horse racing, and bingo.

“I have been talking almost daily with Senator Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG). We are waiting for the temperature to drop a bit, but I am convinced that this year we will approve the project. We already have the necessary votes, the persuasion of the senators, at least the majority,” said the rapporteur during an event with entrepreneurs from the LIDE group in São Paulo.

In the lawmaker’s assessment, the resistance in the House to the Casino Bill is “ideological” and linked to evangelical groups. He spoke about the need to work on a “change in public opinion” regarding gambling. “I am convinced that what does not kill strengthens.

And the sector will come out much stronger from this phase we are facing with public opinion,” said Irajá, comparing the current situation of betting with some stereotypes related to agribusiness. He also emphasized to the entrepreneurs at the event that he “did not fall from the sky” into the rapporteurship of the bill and that approval should be on the agenda still this year.

The noise surrounding the expansion of betting in the country has contaminated the debate on the Casino Bill. Despite the enthusiasm and efforts of the federal government in building sector regulation — carried out under the Secretariat of Prizes and Bets of the Ministry of Finance — allies are already making a sort of “mea culpa” regarding the collateral effects of the proliferation of gaming sites, and the Ministries’ Esplanade has been moving to tighten the rules.

Editó: @_fonta www.zonadeazar.com