Bolsonaro goes all in on gambling to boost the economy

On the night of April 30, 1946, in the iconic Copacabana Palace hotel in Rio de Janeiro, the last casino roulette wheel spun in Brazil. Or, at least, the last legal game of roulette. The following day, then-President Eurico Gaspar Dutra issued a decree that outlawed gambling, stating that it “went against Brazil’s religious principles” and created “pernicious abuses to morals and customs.” At that point, Brazil had roughly 70 casinos, and the gambling industry directly employed 40,000 workers.

Though illegal, gambling continued to exist in Brazil, whether in the form of the fabled jogo do bicho animal lottery — a 130-year-old multimillionaire racket which is so popular across the country that it has its own smartphone apps — or illegal, often rigged electronic bingo machines. 

And while the gambling lobby has tried for decades to win support in Congress to make a comeback, that push gained new breath once President Jair Bolsonaro rose to power.

The idea of making gambling legal once again is at full steam thanks to the lobbying of the president’s politician sons and allies in Congress — most of whom have been cited in graft probes in the past. They were given carte blanche to negotiate support for bills to make casinos legal again — even if Jair Bolsonaro the candidate was adamantly against the idea, saying casinos were “only good to launder money” and “destroy lives.”

Under the president’s auspices, however, the Tourism Ministry has elaborated a plan to bring casinos back in the form of “integrated resorts” — that is, as hotel casinos. The government claims that gambling is legal in almost all G20 countries as a way to boost tourism. “Our intention is to promote a wide debate around this issue, especially in the context of a post-pandemic recovery effort,” the ministry told The Brazilian Report in a written statement.

Legal gambling, however, is just one of 22 strategic projects to...