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The Brazil Senate's powerful Constitution, Justice and Citizenship (CCJ) Committee has approved a sweeping gambling expansion bill to legalise casinos and bingos across the country.
Following the committee's narrow 14-12 vote, Bill PL 2234/2022 will now pass to the Senate floor for further debate.
The current text of the bill, which is still subject to amendments when on the Senate floor, stipulates that casinos will be allowed in resorts with at least 100 rooms as well as restaurants, bars and meeting centres.
Each state can only have one casino-resort, except for Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Amazonas and Para, which can have two, and Sao Paulo, which can have three. Additional casinos could also be authorised on cruise ships and riverboats, as well as designated tourist locations.
One amendment to the bill approved by the CCJ committee removed a prior requirement for casinos to be built as part of newly-developed integrated resorts, and instead allow for them to be part of pre-existing resort facilities.
The bill’s rapporteur, Senator Irajá, said the prior language would lead to a "huge mistake, excluding the Brazilian hotel sector ... from participating in the future licensing of integrated-resorts".
In addition to casinos, Brazilian municipalities would be able to host one bingo hall with up to 450 video-bingo machines for every 150,000 residents, while the ubiquitous but illegal jogo do bicho numbers game also would be licensed on a local population basis.
Gaming machines’ gross revenue would be split, with 60 percent going to the casino or bingo-hall operator and 40 percent to the machine provider.
Gaming would be subject to a specific tax of 17 percent of gross revenue, with operators also required to pay a quarterly inspection fee. Casinos will pay R$600,000 (US$110,000), online casino gaming platforms will pay R$300,000 (US$55,000) and bingo halls and jogo do bicho operators will pay R$200,000 (US$37,000).
Introducing the bill to the committee, Irajá cited the need for regulation primarily for economic reasons to boost tourism and generate both employment and tax dollars.
In his estimation, the potential revenue per year is R$22bn (US$4bn).
The bill’s opponents were a familiar cohort of anti-gambling senators who cited familiar reasons: gambling addiction, money laundering and concerns about trafficking.
The bill will now go before the Senate plenary; however, it is not marked as an urgent matter and it is up to the Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco to put it on the schedule. It is also possible that one or more senators could introduce a motion to have the bill referred to additional Senate committees.
If the Senate approves the bill without changes it will go to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva; if the amendments already approved by the CCJ are incorporated or others are adopted, then the bill will return to the Chamber of Deputies for another vote. The chamber initially passed the bill in February 2022.
The gambling bill, in its current form, introduces a layer of complexity for the pending regulation of online casino games, as it includes provisions for online gaming to be regulated alongside land-based casino and bingo operations.
Law 14.790/2023, enacted in December, has already legalised both fixed-odds betting on sporting events and virtual online gaming events. which in the process of its approval had some online casino games tacked onto it.
Still, which games exactly qualify as online gaming events under that law for fixed-odds betting is still a matter of debate until further regulatory ordinances are released.
Additional reporting by James Kilsby.
