Operator News

Brazil – Brazil could allow casinos in Amazonas as experimental phase

By Phil - 18 March 2020

Federal deputy Alberto Neto has put forward a new bill PL 585/2020 which establishes the legalisation of casino hotels in the state of Amazonas.

In the proposal, the deputy who represents the state in the House of Deputies, says that casinos would be used to attract tourists to capital of the state Manaus and some other municipalities in the state. With a population of more than 2 million, Manaus is the most populous city in the Brazilian Amazon. Licences would be granted for ten years and could be renewed. Neto says that casinos in the state could be used as part of an experimental phase to assess the viability of establishments before they are rolled out on a wider scale.

According to the bill the locations of casinos must take into account factors such as the “lack of alternatives for their economic development” and their “tourist heritage.”

Fines will be put on place for non compliance while taxation and some aspects of supervision would be carried out by the Federal Revenue Service.
Neto said that the state Amazonas could lead the way for other states if casinos prove to be successful. “Even though there was not the necessary consensus for legalization in the national territory of casinos, I believe that the State of Amazonas could be a pioneer in practice and, therefore, a true laboratory for assessing whether the country is in fact ready to receive casinos”, he said in his justification for the bill.

Neto argues that the danger of dismantling the Manaus Free Trade Zone is also a factor that favours the legalisation of games in the state. “With the risk that the Manaus Free Trade Zone is nearing its end, compensatory measures are needed, more than ever. If the current government decides to remodel it, we must think about compensatory measures for our state, ”said Neto, who is part of the Bolsonaro government’s allied base in the Chamber.

In January Deputy Pablo Oliva, who is the vice president of the Mixed Parliamentary Front for the Approval of the Regulatory Framework for Games, said that casinos in the state of Amazonas located in the north-western corner of Brazil would serve as a tourist attraction and generate growth.
“It is a successful experience in different parts of the world. It is the type of activity that moves the economy on several fronts. “They ‘link’ with hotels and take the whole tourist initiative, through entertainment, structures for shows and events. This moves the economy in fields that are more different than we can imagine,” he said.

Manaus’s population grew rapidly from the 1970s with the opening of its free-trade zone and thousands of factory jobs. The Manaus Free Trade Zone is a free import and export trade area where special fiscal incentives apply, set up with the objective of creating in the Amazon Region an industrial, commercial and agricultural centre under economic conditions that allow its development due to its remoteness. However the government is preparing a new economic development project for the Amazon region that it hopes will help the government end the Manaus Free Trade Zone tax incentives.

Caption: Manaus