Brazil’s Federal Senate set to discuss report on gambling legalization

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The Brazilian Federal Senate will receive an update on the bill that seeks to regulate the entire gambling market in Brazil, including sports betting and casinos. As reported by BNL Data, Senator Angelo Coronel assured that he has the report on the legislation that will be debated by the full Senate.

“Only three countries in the world – Brazil, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia – have banned gambling activity and betting”, explained Coronel. “It’s stupid. Brazil is losing billions of dollars, money that the Government could use to fight poverty”, he argued.

The project, having been debated in the last legislative session of 2020, has failed to gain any traction. With this year’s reintroduction, however, the legislative piece will have two paths: either be approved or be discarded completely until the Chamber of Deputies approves another of the presented proposals.

In contrast to last year’s efforts, the bill’s outlook for 2021 is more encouraging, since at the end of 2020, President Jair Bolsonaro appointed the former Head of the Brazilian Tourist Board (Embratur), Gilson Machado, as a replacement for the Minister of Tourism Marcelo Álvaro Antônio.

The new minister has already voiced his support for the regulation of casino resorts in order to promote international tourism. “I’m not talking about legalizing gambling, bingos or slot machines, I only support casino resorts,” Machado said during a ministerial meeting in April 2020.

Additionally, when he was President of Embratur in January 2020, he traveled to Las Vegas to meet Las Vegas Sands Corp representatives, along with Senators Flávio Bolsonaro, Irajá Abreu and congressman Hélio Lopes.