Pact with evangelist representatives’ faction moves Plenary urgency vote
The House of Representatives’ evangelist caucus reached an agreement with the House president, Arthur Lira and Rep. Felipe Carreras, proponent of bill PL 442/91, to postpone the debate on gambling legislation in the Plenary, which had been approved in December on an urgency basis, to March.
Carreras believes that, once in the Plenary, the project will not have difficulties to be approved. “We have already obtained 293 votes in favour in the vote on the urgent request for the plenary debate, in December, and now I see that there is even greater sympathy with the media supporting the project,” added Rep Carreras.
According to reports from Congress, the representatives evangelical caucus seeks to take advantage in the interim to improve its proposals to reject the proposed bill. Carreras has said that does not expect any support from the evangelists, with their fierce opposition to changes in Brazil, although he will comply with the agreement made until the end of this month.
The leader of the Evangelical Parliamentary Front, Rep. Sóstenes Cavalcante said that the agreement is based on the understanding that the issue is too complex to be treated in virtually, which has applied to House debating during the carnival month of February. “That winning or losing in the vote is part of the democratic process, but voting on such a controversial issue via remote system may prevent some colleagues from taking part in the debate, who, at a distance, cannot devote the same attention to the legislative process,” Cavalcante added.
The evangelical leader’s strategy is also to win the support of representatives in the Catholic Parliamentary Front so that the bill can be rejected. Opposition to the bill is a common agenda among evangelical lawmakers and Brazil’s National Conference of Bishops. In a statement, the religious entity states that the arguments used by supporters of the gaming law, that the project can help with tax collection and job creation, “do not consider the possibility of the association of gambling with money laundering and organized crime,” also stating that the legalization of gambling can increase addiction problems.
Bill PL 442/91 already provides several mechanisms to try to solve the problems pointed out by the Brazilian bishops, who insist on such arguments to the point of exhaustion. Under the bill, players’ participation in betting and gambling will be carried out by means of public registration in order to allow the government to identify the value of bets placed to prevent money laundering and restrict access to people identified as gamblers. Additionally, the bill also plans to use part of the revenue generated from gambling for health programmes aimed at combating problem gambling.
