In April 2009 the new bill passed through committee stage in Congress. It is believed that if the law is passed in both houses then 1,500 bingo halls would be given licences. The Brazilian Bingo Association estimates that these 1,500 halls could employ 250,000 people directly and indirectly. Under the proposals, 70% of stakes would be returned to bingo players as prizes. The government would collect 17% of stakes as tax. Within this 17%, 15% would go to the Brazilian Health Service, 1% to a culture fund, and 1% to a public sports fund. This would leave bingo halls to operate on 13% of total stakes, which some in the industry claim is not commercially viable. There would also be a month regulatory fee, equivalent to around US$ 11,000.


Again politics intervened in the process because a final vote by Congress on the bill was delayed until after the country’s presidential elections in October 2010. Da Silva officially left office on 1 January 2011, having served two four-years terms as President and cannot stand for a third term. As well as electing a successor to President Da Silva, seats in the Federal Senate and Chamber of Deputies were contested.


The Bingo sector had a keen interest in the result because it could affect prospects for Bingo being permitted in Brazil. There are many Brazilian Senators who are completely opposed to gaming on principle and, in November 2008, a Senate Investigative Commission charged with investigating the ties between bingo halls and political corruption proposed outlawing gaming altogether.


One of the candidates to succeed Da Silva as President is José Serra. Serra has voiced his opposition to the expanded gambling bill. Serra, however, was unsuccessful in his election bid, losing to Da Silva’s favoured successor Dilma Rousseff. Rousseff is the first woman to be elected Brazil’s president.


In November 2010 there were general expressions of support for the bill from leaders of the parties allied to the government in the Chamber of Representatives. But other politicians still have concerns about criminal links to crime and a new regulatory body might have to be created to oversee Bingo halls because no existing body wants to take on the role. In the same month there were amendments to the proposed bill to try and ensure that taxes raised from the games were dedicated to health and an increase in the minimum salary in Brazil. Also, any new bingo halls would not be permitted within 500 metres of schools or churches.


14 bingo life magazine


During the closing weeks of the outgoing Congress, however, the Chamber of Deputies voted by a margin of 212-144 to reject the bill in December 2010. This would seem to have prevented the possibility of 2011 seeing Bingo halls fully regulated in Brazil, much to the disappointment of the gaming sector. The industry’s next hope is that the incoming president Dilma Rousseff will revive the issue when the new Congress begins in January 2011.


With the election of any new president, there will inevitably be a period of waiting to see what policies she advances. Under President Da Silva the country has seemingly prospered economically and weathered the global recession. The gaming industry, in particular, will be waiting to see Rousseff’s attitude towards bingo in Brazil, which has become all the more important after December’s setback.


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