POLITICS-BRAZIL: The Bingo Resistance

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 1 2004 (IPS) - Since the Brazilian government issued a decree that closed down bingo parlours and slot machines across the country, hundreds of thousands have lost their jobs and have taken to the streets in protest.

And the thousands more – particularly elderly women – who regularly went to the bingo parlours for entertainment are left without a social outlet.

The loss of 320,000 jobs is the main argument the owners of bingo parlours and slot-machines are wielding against the government’s ban, which was decreed in the middle of a corruption scandal.

The owners and workers of the gambling halls have called for a massive national demonstration Wednesday in Brasilia against the ban that, if upheld by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, would eliminate 120,000 jobs at 1,100 bingo parlours nationwide, plus 200,000 related jobs, according to the Brazilian Bingo Association (ABRABIN).

Protests are already being staged daily in numerous cities. On Monday, some 15,000 people gathered in Sao Paulo for a demonstration organised by Força Sindical, the second largest labour confederation in Brazil.

President Lula "is contributing to unemployment" instead of generating the millions of jobs he promised, said Força Sindical leader Paulo Pereira da Silva.

The Lula administration enacted a "provisional measure" (a presidential decree that parliament must ratify within 45 days or it is invalidated) on Feb. 20, prohibiting these games of chance due to suspicions that organised crime uses them for money laundering, and other irregularities.

Attorney Roberto Busato, president of the Brazilian Bar Association, criticised the move, saying it is "incoherent" because it is an attempt to neutralise the political effects of a government scandal and omits the so-called ‘jogo do bicho’ (animal game), a form of bingo based on animal names, which is illegal and openly practiced in many Brazilian cities.

Lula’s decision is seen as a reaction to the reports that prompted him a week earlier to fire his adviser, Waldomiro Diniz, allegedly involved in illegal fundraising efforts for the governing Workers’ Party (PT).

Epoca magazine revealed the existence of a video tape in which Diniz is shown negotiating a financial contribution from an electronic lottery operator in mid-2002, a scandal that has been dubbed "Waldogate".

Beginning when Lula took office in January 2003, Diniz was in charge of the executive branch’s relations with parliamentarians, as trusted assistant to Minister José Dirceu, the president’s chief of staff.

That relation is why the loudest chants of the bingo employees turned protesters is: "José Dirceu, your job has cost me my job," accusing the government of closing the bingo parlours in a political manoeuvre to protect the minister from scandal.

The bingo games and slot-machines emerged as a lucrative business throughout Brazil beginning in 1993, when legislation opened the way for games of chance as a means to financially support sports clubs, which were to receive a share of the profits.

But legal confusion ensued. The state governments passed their own legislation allowing private companies to run gambling operations, creating gaps in the monopoly of the national lottery run by the Federal Economic Bank, which finances government construction and social projects.

A series of denunciations revealed links between the gaming operations and some members of the Italian mafia, as well as money laundering of drug traffickers and other crimes.

Several segments from across Brazilian society have called for the elimination of the gaming halls or regulations to eliminate the irregularities.

The Lula administration had created a commission to come up with a solution, most likely the return of gaming operations to the public sphere. But the president’s "provisional measure" interrupted that process, seeking to avoid further harm to his administration’s reputation from the Diniz scandal.

Several attempts to annul the decision through the courts have failed. But a businessman is challenging the constitutionality of the presidential decree in the Supreme Court. "Provisional measures", according to the constitution, are only justified in case of emergency or other extraordinary circumstances.

If a provisional measure is decreed every time there is a government scandal, within a few years there would be hundreds, creating a situation of "juridical insecurity", argued Napoleao Tavares da Cámara, in his legal complaint before the high court.

In addition to pushing hundreds of thousands of people into unemployment, the closure of the bingo halls would eliminate a source of "safe" entertainment, especially for the elderly, says Maria Teófila Ponce de León, who used to go to bingo parlour every day in Belo Horizonte, capital of Minas Gerais state.

Slot-machines might be associated with organised crime, but not the bingo halls, which are "social centres, healthy get-togethers, and sometimes the only source of entertainment," especially for older women, she told IPS.

"I have only lost money twice; I always won," she said, explaining that there are "sure-fire" ways to bet, and that there are some people who seem to be hooked on the game, but, she added, that is true for any activity.

Anger about the presidential decree "is widespread" also among elderly women in Copacabana, a Rio de Janeiro neighbourhood that is home to many retirees, says Vanise Monteiro Campos, who has lived there for several decades.

Her aunt, 92-year-old Gloria de Andrade, was also a frequent participant in bingo games until she was hospitalised last month. In her case, "she lost a lot of money," but "it was her only joy, because it was where she met people and made new friends."

The bingo halls serve an important social function, promoting solidarity amongst neighbours, commented Campos. Before it became big business, it was a way for churches and community centres to raise money for social assistance programmes, she noted.