Part 2: The curious case of Brazilian bingo
Part 2: The curious case
of Brazilian bingo
Those looking to become
licensed in Brazil once
sports betting opens up
are hoping the country
has learned some lessons
from its unsuccessful
attempt to legalise bingo
10
The failed attempt to introduce
legalised land-based bingo into Brazil
in the 1990s provides an object lesson
in how not regulate gaming.
Both named after footballers,
the ‘Zico’ law in 1993 and the
‘Pele’ law in 1998 allowed the state
governments, and then the lottery
operator Caixa, to operate bingo
halls to help fund the development
of sports in Brazil.
However, neither law definitively
established legal clarity over either
the licensing process or the gaming
machine products that were soon
established in the halls. The situation
became worse when various state
governments subsequently issued
their own regulations and licences,
apparently in contravention of the
national laws.
Though it was deemed that bingo
was a socially acceptable leisure
pursuit, the chaotic process of
regulation – and the lack of oversight
of the sector – soon saw it ensnared
in organised crime and money-
laundering accusations.
Within 10 years, then president
Lula da Silva called a halt to the
experiment in 2004, a decision that
was confirmed by the Supreme Court
in 2007. An official inquiry said that
the many bingo halls that sprung
up became hotbeds of illegality
and the weak regulatory structure
saw them exploited by organised
crime, helping in part to finance local
election campaigns.
BRAZIL The regulated opportunity in Latam’s largest market
The bingo project findings
The experience of the failed bingo
regulation in Brazil attracted the
interest of academics from the
University of Kent, who embarked
upon a bingo project in association
with the Economic and Social
Research Council.
Their findings were published in
a report in 2016. It included a precis
of the chaotic regulatory system
employed, where in some states the
lottery took over the reins, while in
others, in particular the state of Sāo
Paulo, “two retired ladies [were] in
charge of regulation without adequate
regulatory infrastructure”.
As one unidentified former bingo
owner in Brazil put it: “Entrepreneurs
soon realised that what they did
would not be monitored and
that’s what started the fragile
relationship between bingos and
the public authorities.”
The central government attempted
various forms of oversight in the
wake of the initial opening up of the
bingo market, ultimately leading
to the second ‘Pele’ law, which
transferred regulatory licensing and
oversight to a Federal authority, the
Nacional do Desenvolvimento do
Desporto (National Institute for the
Development of Sports, or INDESP).
However, this body left in place
unsatisfactory regulatory systems in
13 out of 27 states.
After another corruption scandal
involving INDESP itself in the early