Ten years after the ban, bingo halls in São Paulo are still awaiting legalization.
Ten years after the enactment of Law 9.981, which banned bingo halls throughout the country, large buildings that formerly housed bingo establishments remain vacant.
Olavo Oliveira, president of the Brazilian Bingo Association (Abrabin) and partner of Bingo Augusta, in the center of São Paulo, states that bingo owners did not imagine that the prohibition would last so long, and that each acted in the way they believed to be the most profitable. "It is clear that those who paid rent, and high amounts, accelerated the handover process, and those who were owners delayed the process of vacating," says Oliveira.
"Dismantling bingo halls, especially themed ones, generates losses. Who pays for those chairs? What do you do with all the panels? You dismantle them and don't put them back together. There's a lot of electronics, a lot of wiring. If you take that out, you have to throw it in the trash. Rebuilding one of those bingo halls would cost around R$ 2 million," he says.
According to Oliveira, the maintenance cost of Bingo Augusta is R$ 50 per month, paid for with the rental of the parking lot. Due to its extensive kitchen facilities, the building is also occasionally used to host small events.
Click here to see the full report on G1-SP.
COMMENT: Enlightening report from G1 on Rede Globo.
The featured report on the G1-SP portal of Rede Globo, about the commercial establishments that housed bingo halls in the city of São Paulo, is very interesting and enlightening.
Important representatives from the sector participate in the article, sharing their perspectives on the reasons that led them to maintain their commercial positions regarding the legalization of bingo.
The report clarifies the expectations of the president of Abrabin, Olavo Sales da Silveira, regarding the timeline for the legalization of bingo: According to the report, the proposal "awaits a new vote after the elections of
One of the errors in the report concerns the number of the bill awaiting a vote on the agenda of the Chamber of Deputies, after the archiving of Bill 270/03. The bill that heads the proposal to legalize bingo is Bill 1986/2003, not Bill 2.254/07, which is attached along with Bills 2944/2004, 2999/2004, 3492/2004, 2254/2007, 2429/2007, and 3489/2008.
Positive agenda
Just out of curiosity. With only 10 days left until the elections, bingo halls and gambling have remained outside the controversial topics of this year's election. We haven't had scandals, accusations of links to politicians, or other ills that the sector is always accused of in every election held in the country.
The issue is so relevant that a report in Veja Rio magazine profiling the four main candidates for senator from Rio de Janeiro and their convictions on 14 controversial topics did not include bingo. The 14 topics covered were: abortion, euthanasia, gay marriage, drug decriminalization, tax reform, taxation of large fortunes, lowering the age of criminal responsibility, increasing penalties for heinous crimes, reducing the work week, affirmative action in universities, press regulation, demarcation of indigenous reserves, mandatory military service, and mandatory voting.
