The law that would allow land-based gambling in Brazil is considered urgent, so the senate could vote on it in a few weeks.
Gambling on land in Brazil
Local news reports say that the plan to make land-based gambling legal in Brazil could be voted on before the Senate goes on vacation in July.
Senate President Davi Alcolumbre assured leaders Wednesday that he would make the vote on land-based gaming a top priority.
The Justice and Citizenship Committee adopted the law, PL 2,234/2022, in June 2024. But the Senate vote that came after that was put off several times.
It wasn't obvious when the vote would happen, but Minister of Tourism Celso Sabino thought it would happen in the first half of the year. The selection of Alcolumbre, a supporter of gambling, as Senate president in February made it seem like the issue could be given priority.
Brazil's president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, is not likely to oppose the bill if the Senate votes in favour of it.
Study demonstrates that people in Brazil support land-based gambling
Since the online gaming market in Brazil opened on January 1, there have been a lot of complaints regarding the betting industry. Today, licensed digital operators are dealing with greater taxes and tighter limits on gambling ads. The government is doing this to ease anxieties about the impact of gaming and make up for budget shortfalls in other areas.
But it's evident that people want casinos and retail sports betting. A state-funded DataSenado survey from April showed that a lot of people supported making this legal.
According to a study by DataSenado, a research group connected to the Transparency Secretariat of the Federal Senate, 60% of adults in Brazil support making gambling on land legal. Only 34% stated they were completely opposed the plan.
58% of the people who were asked agreed that making gambling on land legal would help Brazil collect more taxes. At the same time, 44% said it would create more jobs.
There is still pushback from evangelicals.
Even though a lot of people support it, there is still a lot of hostility among evangelicals in Brazil.
Gilberto Nascimento, the president of the Evangelical Parliamentary Front, told Poder360 that his party would not support legalising land-based activities.
On April 13, Nascimento declared, "I will ask everyone to be against it." "We will get moving.
"Everyone is addicted to gambling; just look at what's going on with [online] betting." Casinos and real-life games usually get worse. Brazil is not a place where people want to gamble.
