Brazil's gambling bill to be discussed next week

Casinos, bingo and the operation of slots and video bingo machines are among the regulations which have been published on the Chamber of Deputies website.

Each state in Brazil will be able to set up its own lottery and bingo halls will be permitted for the first time in years since they were closed down. Racetracks and football stadiums with a capacity of 15,000 will also be permitted to run bingo.

The bill also provides amnesty for operators accused to committing gambling offences and even halts legal proceedings that have already been initiated against gambling operators.

Approval of the regulations by the Chamber would automatically transfer it to Parliament where it may still be amended after debate. A number of interested parties have already registered their intention to lobby for changes to the regulations, including many vigorously opposed to any form of gambling.

Under the proposals, casinos would only be permitted inside hotels and a maximum of three casino licences would be issued to any region containing 25 million population or over. Smaller regions with between 15 million and 25 million would have two licences. The hotel venues must have over 100 rooms. The licences would be valid for 30 years and would be obtained through a bidding process.

Local authorities would be able to permit the operation of bingo halls. No limits are to be set on the number of bingo licences issued in each state, but the halls must be no closer than one kilometre from one another and five kilometres from casinos. States would be permitted to issue their own lotteries. Video bingo machines could only be operated in casinos, bingo halls, racetrack and football stadia and slot machines would only be permitted in casinos.

Read Comissão adia votação da legalização dos jogos no Brasil.