A new pro-gambling Senate president in Brazil is good news for land-based betting.
On Saturday, February 1, Brazil's hopes of legalising land-based gaming got a big boost when Davi Alcolumbre was re-elected as president of the senate.
Brazil gambling senate Alcolumbre, who was president of the senate from 2019 to 2021, has been a strong supporter of gambling in Brazil. Alcolumbre was sworn in as the new senator on the weekend as the 2025 congressional session began. He won the job by a wide margin (73 of 81).
As president of the justice and citizenship committee (CCJ), he helped move PL 2,234/2022 forward. This law aims to make casinos, bingo, jogo de bicho, and horse racing betting legal. A vote of 14-12 in June 2024 authorised the law, but the senate hasn't fully approved it yet because of a variety of delays.
With Alcolumbre back in charge, this new appointment could make land-based legalisation a higher priority for the Senate.
O Globo says that Alcolumbre wants to make gambling on land legal. This comes after Brazil's tourism minister, Celso Sabino, said he thinks the senate will legalise land-based casinos in the first half of 2025.
Hugo Motta was named president of the chamber of deputies at the start of the senate session. He was supported by the former president, Arthur Lira, who was a supporter of gambling.
Girão, who is against land-based gaming in Brazil, lost
Another win for the gambling sector is Alcolumbre's re-election and the fact that he beat someone else to the job.
Senator Eduardo Girão, who has been against gaming in Brazil for a long time, only got four votes, one of which was his own.
Girão called Alcolumbre the "candidate of continuity" since he was pro-gambling in a speech before the vote.
Girão added, "The candidate of continuity is in favour of casinos and bingo." "Isn't the gambling he supported enough, which I warned would be a humanitarian societal tragedy?
"How can you preserve your conscience and look your fellow countryman in the eye when you make this tragedy worse with casinos and bingo, which has already been revealed to be a lie? This is also good for rich people.
