Governors from the South and Southeast regions advocate for using gambling revenue for public safety.
The governors of Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro, Paraná, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul argued that part of the revenue from taxing electronic betting should be allocated to public security. The proposal was presented during the closing of the South and Southeast Integration Consortium (Cosud), held this Saturday (6) at Palácio Guanabara, headquarters of the Rio de Janeiro state government. The objective is to reduce the states' dependence on transfers from the Union.
The closing ceremony of the 14th edition of Cosud was attended in person by governors Romeu Zema (MG), Cláudio Castro (RJ), Ratinho Júnior (PR), Jorginho Mello (SC), and Eduardo Leite (RS). During the event, the state leaders signed a joint letter establishing public safety as an absolute priority.
The governors also advocated for the creation of permanent lines of financing from the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) aimed at modernizing public security, as highlighted in the final letter from the meeting.
The governor of Santa Catarina, Jorginho Mello, suggested a specific percentage for the allocation. “Given the volume of advertising that betting companies do, it must generate astronomical revenue. It could be 20% (a portion of the betting taxes allocated to combating organized crime). The federal government, which is the main source of this funding, needs to have the foresight to understand that public safety is fundamental to bringing peace, hope, and tranquility to people, and to share this money,” he said.
The document signed by the governors includes a commitment to "improve interstate mechanisms for technological and operational integration of data, information, and systems used by police forces for planning and combating crime, especially with regard to recovering assets from criminal organizations for reinvestment in state police forces, combating the logistics chain of crimes related to cell phone theft and robbery, and interoperability between state multi-biometric identification systems for criminals."
The financing lines proposed to BNDES would include continuous credit for the acquisition of technology, expansion of police intelligence, and digitization of data—measures considered essential for the modernization of state security forces.
The governors also argued that "the Brazilian legal system needs to be improved, with adjustments to criminal and procedural law, to allow for more effective punishment of crimes with great potential for harm, such as the trafficking of weapons of war and the leadership of factions from within the prison system, in addition to curbing multiple violent recidivism and the use of clandestine money laundering networks."
The initiative seeks to guarantee continuous funding for state security forces, without relying exclusively on federal transfers. No data has been released regarding the current amount collected from taxing online betting, nor estimates of how much each state could receive if the proposal is implemented.
The next Cosud meeting is scheduled for March 20, 2026, in Minas Gerais. At that time, the governor of Minas Gerais, Romeu Zema, will assume the presidency of the consortium, having been unanimously elected during the meeting in Rio de Janeiro.
