Trade unions have finally pressed Jose Mucio Monteiro, Minister of Institutional Relations, to put forward a proposal to regulate bingos along with the National Congress. He finally made up his mind to put the controversial and difficult issue to debate in the Political Council of the Federal Government.
It is expected that the members of the Council will decide whether the matter should be passed on to the Congress or not. Monteiro’s support of the issue will depend on this. The issue will be treated very carefully, considering the episode in 2005, when Waldomiro Diniz, ex consultand of the Civil House of the Government, was accused of extorting money from gaming businessmen to collect money for the Partido Trabalhista (PT) political party.
Bingo regulation is a vital issue for Brazil, both because of millions of employees awaiting the outcome, and financial issue (bingos should bring more than us$ 1.1 billion to public coffers). The allocation of these resources is supposed to depend on the region. In the US the money is allocated to health, for instance, and in Brazil the idea is to allocate bingo collection to sports.
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