Senator Irajá takes land-based casino fight to New York
The debate on the legalization of land-based casinos in Brazil has once again gained international attention. Senator Irajá Silvestre brought his argument to the Brazil Investment Forum, held in New York, stating that the country needs to authorize integrated casinos to unlock investments in tourism and entertainment. The legislator is the rapporteur of PL 2.234, the bill that seeks to regulate casinos, bingo halls, Jogo do Bicho, and horse racing betting in Brazilian territory.
During the meeting organized by LIDE, Irajá insisted that the Brazilian Congress still has room to approve strategic reforms despite the electoral calendar. He argued that national tourism remains an underutilized industry and that opening the casino segment can become a lever to attract external capital and develop tourism hubs in different regions of the country.
The senator compared the Brazilian situation with the rest of South America and emphasized that Brazil and Bolivia are the only two countries in the region that still do not allow the operation of casinos. For Irajá, maintaining this prohibition means sacrificing jobs, tax revenue, and private investment that are already operating in neighboring markets such as Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, and Peru.
PL 2.234 has been under discussion in the Senate for several months and continues to generate divisions both within Congress and in the federal government itself. The initiative proposes a model of integrated casinos within tourist complexes, similar to those in reference jurisdictions such as Singapore or the United States, focusing on hotel, gastronomic, and entertainment infrastructure associated with gaming operations.
Irajá called for moving past ideological resistance surrounding gambling and focusing on the economic potential offered by regulation. According to the senator, enabling land-based casinos would allow for the organization of a market that currently coexists with informal circuits and, at the same time, generate a clear tax scheme that contributes resources to public coffers in a demanding fiscal context for the Brazilian state.
For Latin America, the project's advancement would be a significant structural change. Brazil is the largest regulated online betting market in the region, and its eventual entry into land-based gaming would reorganize investment flows, alliances with international operators, and regulatory standards that neighboring countries in the Southern Cone and the Caribbean often replicate.
Tags: Brazil, land-based casinos Brazil, gambling regulation Brazil, Bill 2234, tourism Brazil, Brazilian Senate