Legalizing gambling in Brazil could help brining in revenues through gambling and could stop increasing taxes on residents.
President Dilma Rousseff considers raising personal taxes, however, lawmakers and congress want to look at re-establishing gambling in Brazil as an alternative revenue stream. Aloizio Mercadante, the president's chief of staff, has forwarded the idea to lawmakers last week after they announced the government will struggle to pass a quite controversial tax on financial transactions.
Casino Gambling was allowed back in 1946 and bingo halls are illegal since eight years as the government feared that they encouraged money laundering. The only forms of gambling allowed in Brazil is lotteries and horse racing.
Gambling supporters say that the country could earn nearly $6 billion in gambling taxes per year and could have been much larger if Brazil had legalized gambling before the 2014 World Cup.
Mauricio Quintella, leader of a centre-right Party of the Republic, said: “When Brazilians want to gamble, they go to Paraguay, Montevideo, Las Vegas… and they leave all the money there.”
Taking into consideration that Brazil has seen some major corruption scandals over the years and that many Brazilians think that casinos and corruption go hand in hand, Brazil has a long way to go. Convincing the residents that this will not be the case this time will be a difficult task, however, the lawmakers believe it's worth it.
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