The president of Solidariedade, (SP), suggested this Monday (11) that the treatment of betting regulation should leave the control of , as he understands that the department is only concerned with revenue. For the deputy, it is necessary to create a regulatory agency to deal with the issue.
“Brazil has to create a regulatory agency, it has to take it from the Ministry of Finance, the ministry only thinks about money, it only thinks about collecting money, that’s why there’s all this confusion,” he said. The speech was made during a public hearing on bets, led by minister Luiz Fux, of the STF (Supreme Federal Court).
The hearing was called following a Direct Unconstitutionality Action, of which Fux is the rapporteur, in which the National Confederation of Commerce in Goods, Services and Tourism requested that the Bets Law (n°14,790/2023) be declared unconstitutional by the STF.
The Minister of Human Rights, Macaé Evaristo, also participated in the hearing, warning about the addictive potential of games and harm to families, compared to other types of betting, such as casinos.
“With the installation of so-called bets, we are allowing the installation of a casino in the pocket of every Brazilian. The difficulties of our country, still in development, people’s desire for a better future, often the lack of economic perspective, end up being a fertile ground for desperate and sad bets on games”, he stated.
The law in question was responsible for regulating betting, establishing a lottery modality called “fixed odds betting”.
Paulinho da Força reinforced, on the other hand, that he was one of the defenders of the legalization of bingos and casinos, during the ban in the first term of (), in 2004. Among the arguments to support the activities, the deputy pointed to the generation of jobs through modalities, which does not happen in the case of bets.
“Do you know how many employees bets have in Brazil? Zero. Do you know how much they paid in taxes during this entire period? Not a cent. These companies are outside Brazil. What they collected from poor people was to take out of the country, they did not pay a cent of tax”, he said.
The party president also criticized the advertising of bets, which sponsor and use the biggest teams in the country to promote the games, encouraging addiction.
“If we don’t stop this ‘dragon’, it will continue eating the money of the poorest people in Brazil every day. Spending R$3 billion from those who receive Bolsa Família or the BPC and these companies don’t pay a cent in tax, you are taking tax money from Brazilians and taking it out of the country”, he stated.
A study commissioned by the betting industry estimated that in August this year. The analysis by LCA Consultoria Econômica was based on the technical note from , which identified R$3 billion in transfers by program beneficiaries to these sites in the month, without taking into account, in the platforms’ view, the value returned in prizes.
The withdrawal considered the amount sent to the platform, the money returned to the player and what is retained by the company – both fees and deposits left by the player for future bets. The figure mentioned corresponds to 1.5% of the R$14.1 billion transferred to beneficiaries that month.
Also present at the hearing, the Secretary of Finance prizes and betting, Regis Anderson Dudena, said that the ideal is regulation, not prohibition, and that the ministry has been working since 2023 to regulate activities.
“The demand for the service is real, and a possible declaration of the law’s unconstitutionality will only direct Brazilians to an illegal, unsafe market with harmful effects such as fraud, money laundering and the exploitation of gamblers, which tend to worsen and increase problems of mental and financial health as over-indebtedness”, he said.
“It is our position that regulation is the best means of the state’s presence in the sector and this presence will only be full, effective and efficient if the constitutionality of law 14,790 is recognized by this Supreme Court”, he concluded.
The audience is divided into two blocks, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The second block is scheduled for 2pm this Monday (11).
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