Pulse
The power of the church: Gambling policy influencers in Latin America
By Lewis - 12 April 2021
The church has played a pivotal role in delaying the development of gambling policy for years, with the church only recently coming out against online gambling in Buenos Aires.
Meanwhile, the ‘bancada evangelica’ (evangelical bench) in Brazil represents around 200 representatives of the Congress. Evangelical voters helped propel far-right Jair Bolsonaro to the presidency and will undoubtedly help shape gambling policy. So, what has the impact of the church had on gambling laws and how will it impact the industry in the future?
Home to more than 425 million Catholics overall, Latin America remains overwhelmingly Catholic and is home to nearly 40 per cent of the world’s total Catholic population. However, an increasing number of Latin Americans have joined evangelical churches.
In Latin America the evangelical movement has created so called – mega churches – large, rapidly growing, predominantly Pentecostal churches, and have put their weight behind candidates who reflect their conservative views.
The success of evangelical candidates in elections means that the church has an increasingly powerful influence on policies in a number of countries in the region. These include countries such as Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, Brazil and Costa Rica.
The influence of the evangelical church is especially present in Brazil. According to Pew Research Centre, while 19 per cent of Latin Americans identify as evangelical Christians, experts estimate that the figure could be as high as 30 per cent in Brazil. 40 years ago, 90 per cent of Brazil was Catholic.
Evangelicals were key to the recent election victory of Jair Messias Bolsonaro. According to a poll from Datafolha, nearly 70 per cent of Brazilian Evangelicals cast their vote for the former army captain and far right candidate whose election slogan was: “Brazil above everything; God above everyone.”
In Colombia, there are 10 million evangelical followers in a country of 48 million people. In Chile, as the gap between rich and poor continues to widen, evangelicals are gaining ground just as they are in Argentina, where evangelical churches have proliferated everywhere and Spanish speaking preachers give sermons (often with a Brazilian accent) on cable television.
Evangelicals are also part of a core pillar of the current administration in Guatemala. Jimmy Morales an evangelical Christian, comedian and famous actor, won the presidential election in 2018. In Costa Rica, although he ultimately lost to centre-left opponent.
In February 2018, Alvarado Muñoz, an evangelical pastor, emerged as the winner of the first round of Costa Rica’s presidential election in 2015.
Even in Mexico, where the power of the Roman Catholic Church has not been eroded to such a degree as other countries, the evangelical party, the Social Encounter Party, allied itself with Andrés Manuel López Obrador and helped him get elected in 2018.
But long before the rise of evangelism, the church had played a fundamental role in shaping gambling policy, especially in Brazil. For decades, Brazilian lawmakers have avoided the issue of legalising casinos out of fear of alienating their Roman Catholic base.
Indeed, President Eurico Gaspar Dutra banned casinos in the mid-1940s, many say due to the influence of his wife, Carmela Teles Leite Dutra, who was herself a devout catholic. Underpinning the Gaming Act of 1946 is the argument that the religious moral tradition of the Brazilian people is contrary to the practice and exploitation of games of chance.
The ban came just after the Quitandinha Palace had been inaugurated in Petrópolis, which would have been the largest casino in Latin America. According to the Brazilian Senate News Agency, before the ban there had been 70 casinos in the country, employing more than 50,000 workers.
Documents held in the Senate Archives in Brasilia show that the majority of senators and deputies also sided with the president at the time. “It may be argued that, with the closing of gaming in casinos and luxury hotels, tourism will disappear,” said Deputy Antero Leivas.
“To which I answer that, if Brazil depends on the proliferation of gambling and addiction to be known and visited, I prefer that we are forever unknown,” (source: the Brazilian Senate News Agency).
To a certain extent his wish was granted in that casinos saw fewer tourists. The ban meant a complete change of policy and Brazil losing out on vast amounts of gambling tax revenue, not to mention the tourism income lost as a result.
Today, Brazil still massively underperforms as a tourist destination. Currently, it’s not just Catholic opposition but the increasingly powerful Evangelical movement that blocks regulation, meaning that outdated views of gambling still hold sway.
In May 2018, Brazil’s Tourism Minister, Bob Santos, criticised the opposition of religious leaders to government efforts to regulate the market. Santos said that there was a lack of knowledge within the religious caucus about legalising gambling in Brazil.
“The National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (CNBB) and the Evangelical caucus are very concerned about gambling, but many countries in Europe, North America and Asia have special policies, which reinvest part of their (tax) collection in the treatment for that ailment (gambling addiction),” he said.
Crucially, Bolsonaro was heavily backed by evangelical leaders, most notably billionaire Bishop Edir Macedo, head of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God and one of the main evangelical figures in Brazil.
The power of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God is far reaching. It owns the multi-billion television company, RecordTV (Brazil’s second-largest channel by geographical reach and audience), which is used in turn to push the evangelical agenda as part of its vast media empire.
Wisely, Bolsonaro during the election remained pretty much on the fence apart from one occasion, when he came out against casinos.
However, he sided in favour of legalising gambling in casinos during a meeting with Deputy Newton Cardoso Jr, President of the Tourism Commission of the Chamber of Deputies in August 2019, arguing that ultimately it should be down to each state to set its own gambling laws.
In November 2019, Bolsonaro launched a new evangelical-type political party called the Alliance for Brazil, a hard-right political movement, with a strong conservative religious agenda.
Bolsonaro is less popular now with the evangelical bench than he was at the beginning of his term in office. Bolsonaro’s approval rating has also plummeted due to his handling of the pandemic, according to recent polls. Either way evangelical voters will be crucial when it comes to any gambling policy coming from the executive branch in the future.
Pressure is mounting to allow for an expansion of gambling, especially in integrated resort hotels. In November 2019, representatives of the conservative block known as Centrão resumed a campaign to allow for the opening of casinos in the country.
Bolsonaro was asked if he would support any bill that would give casinos the go ahead, but said that he would consult with the evangelical bench before making a decision.
Largely speaking the evangelical bench continues to oppose casinos and any lawmakers who support them, including fellow evangelical lawmakers. In December, a powerful evangelical pastor and congressman warned the President of EMBRATUR (The Brazilian Tourist Board), Gilson Machado, against lobbying for casinos. Machado had defended the opening of casinos in Brazil.
Neo-Pentecostal evangelical pastor and Congressman, Marco Feliciano, said that if the government insisted on pressing the issue, then its evangelical base would quickly come to an end.
“The Evangelical Bench will march united against it, and pastors from all over Brazil will preach against it,” he posted on twitter.
There have even been plans to offer casinos under the administration of outgoing Rio de Janeiro Mayor, Marcelo Crivella, a licensed bishop of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God. Crivella is an evangelical bishop, an ally of Jair Bolsonaro and Bishop Edir Macedo’s nephew.
However, the evangelical front is against any plans that would regulate casinos in Rio de Janeiro. “Whoever thinks it is a sin, doesn’t have to play,” Crivella told local press. But the evangelical bench remains opposed.
Meanwhile, in Argentina, where evangelism is not as widespread as in other jurisdictions, the Catholic Church has continued to be a fierce critic of gambling in all its forms. In 2010, bishops and other high ranking members of the clergy headed by Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio (now Pope Francis), called for more government control over gaming in Argentina.
In a first of its kind specifically dedicated to the issue of gaming, entitled “The Game Becomes Dangerous,” archbishops launched a scathing attack on the proliferation of casinos and bingo halls nationwide.
Arguing that gambling has had a sometimes devastating effect on the poor, the report went on to say that: “Gambling is a business that generates grand sums of money for the benefit of a few at the cost of many.”
Church leaders in the document also countered the argument often put forward by operators and government officials alike that extra tax revenue generated by casinos is used to fund social welfare programmes, arguing instead that “the ends do not justify the means” and called for other forms of generating the necessary tax income.
In perhaps its most controversial section, the report argued (without any evidence to back up these claims) that casinos in Argentina were places of money-laundering, corruption as well as drug and human trafficking.
Politicians have regularly come under fierce criticism for their attempts to regulate the online market and there is no doubt that the church delayed the licensing of online gambling for many years.
While serving as Mayor of the city of Buenos Aires, Mauricio Macri came out in favour of allowing online gaming in Buenos Aires and, in 2008, argued that extra tax generated by casinos and online gaming could be used to fund social welfare programmes. This was after his government carried out a study into the issue of online gaming and its impact.
However, in the same year, Mr. Macri was forced to make a dramatic turnaround when church leaders sent a letter in opposition to the planned proliferation of gaming activities within the city. The letter was fiercely critical of the “lack of transparency” in the gambling business.
Later in 2016, bowing to pressure from members of the opposition parties and the church, the Governor of Buenos Aires province, María Eugenia Vidal, decided to reverse her decision to allow instant Quiniela, which would have been available in 4,000 betting agencies.
In 2019, the church again protested against gambling, arguing that a much wider debate should have been held on the issue of online gambling before gambling laws were passed in the province of Buenos Aires, and argued that the new gaming policy amounted to a government about face.
It also criticised the rapid expansion of all gambling around the country and online gambling in particular.
The pandemic has led to even more criticism from the church with leaders arguing that now is not the time to allow for an online expansion. In September 2020, the archdiocese of the city of Buenos Aires sent a letter to the government stating its opposition to the online gambling bill, arguing that it would allow every house to potentially become a casino.
The church, albeit behind the scenes, is playing a crucial role in gaming policy in Mexico. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has announced that during his six-year term, no new licences will be granted to open any new casinos in Mexico. The end of the licences for new gambling operations is part of a gesture to Cardinal Rogelio Cabrera, current head of the Mexican Episcopate.
The Catholic Church has repeatedly requested that new casino openings be prevented after the Casino Royale tragedy, when a group of armed men attacked and then set fire to a licensed casino in Monterrey leaving 52 people dead in 2011. The decision was relayed to high ranking members of the gaming industry in a meeting by Julio Scherer, legal advisor of the Presidency.
Overall, the rise of evangelical churches is a distinct shift to the right and the adoption of conservative values in the region. The impact of COVID-19 will mean that governments will need to find ways to raise funds and this could lead to attempts to liberalise some markets, especially online markets.
However, the church will continue to oppose any kind of expansion and play a crucial role in shaping gambling policy throughout Latin America. While poverty and social conditions worsen, the evangelical church will continue to rise in popularity and its influence will be felt increasingly as its members seek to change public policy.
This is already happening in Brazil. Other jurisdictions in Latin America will follow.
