This is about the bill sent by the Executive Power.
Paraguay.- The legislative initiative of the Executive Power of Paraguay that seeks to modify the law 1016/1997 regulating the exploitation of gambling in the country could be discussed in the Chamber of Deputies next Tuesday, November 26.
According to the local media ABC, among the most notable points of the draft agenda for the session on Tuesday 26, the project sent by the Executive Power at the beginning of the month is included again.
It is worth remembering that one of the most important changes proposed in the project would be the transfer of supervision from the National Gambling Commission (Conajzar) to the National Directorate of Tax Revenues (DNIT). It also aims to eliminate the market monopoly.
The proposal seeks to optimize revenue collection and strengthen Conajzar, granting it greater supervisory capabilities. The document presented to Congress highlights the need to modernize the current regulatory framework. It is proposed that the changes will allow Conajzar to integrate its operations with DNIT, providing it with a more efficient mechanism to enforce resolutions and facilitate the monitoring of the industry.
With this merger with DNIT, the Government hopes to leverage the tax collection experience of this latter institution. The proposal also emphasizes the importance of improving the tools of Conajzar, an agency that, until now, has had limitations in imposing its resolutions and ensuring compliance with the law in the gambling sector.
The bill also aims to strengthen the powers of Conajzar in its role as a regulatory body. The reform includes new powers for the general director of the entity, who will assume functions of coordination, development, and monitoring of the sector.
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In addition, besides the administrative changes, the Executive's proposal includes an opening of the gambling market, eliminating monopolies and allowing greater competition at the national, departmental, and municipal levels.
There is a similar project that was stalled in the Chamber, which sought to modify several articles of the law that establishes the legal regime for the exploitation of games of chance or gambling, in order to eliminate the current monopoly of concessions for such activities, such as the lottery, sports betting, and others.
Regarding this initiative, Deputy Adrián “Billy” Vaesken, one of the main promoters of the project, said: “It is the idea of putting an end to the gambling monopoly, that the gambling industry be one that has competition and that it is framed within the National Constitution."
However, given that it is a project sent by the Executive, he said they had the verbal commitment of the Cartes supporters - who are the majority in the Lower House - to deal with and modify Article 8, which is contradictory in the central point: the demonopolization. This since Article 8 continues to state that “concessions will be granted to the best offer presented”, although Article 23 bis states that this law “regulates the number of exploitation authorizations that will correspond to each type of game, which may not be less than three for each of them”.
Vaesken told ABC: “Article 8 is opposed to what Article 23 bis says, which ends the monopoly, but in Article 8 it again gives rise to the monopoly. We corrected this in the Legislation Committee and agreed with the presidency (the Cartes supporter Raúl Latorre) that we are going to modify that point”
According to Vaesken, with the demonopolization of the concessions, in addition to adjusting the law to the National Constitution, in practice with more companies it “will improve the income of the Directorate of Charity and Social Assistance (Diben), of the municipalities and governorships, and the DNIT”, while “the working conditions of the employees dedicated to gambling”, mainly the lottery vendors, will be improved.
The president of Conajzar, Carlos Liseras, pointed out that this proposal is highly positive for the entity so that the DNIT can improve regulation and collection. “With this, we will be a dependency of the DNIT, we will have the necessary muscle and personnel,” he expressed to 780 AM.
