The Chamber of Deputies of Paraguay postponed once again the discussion of the bill that seeks to amend six articles of Law No. 1016/1997 and eliminate the monopoly on gambling concessions.
Members of the Colorado party, who hold the majority in the Lower House, approved the delay, while their leader, Rocío Abed, proposed to study the initiative presented by Adrián Vaesken in three months time. “I clarify that we are not in favour of the monopoly, but the government is preparing a bill,” Abed justified while rejecting the project.
The current law establishes that the National Commission of Gambling (Conajzar) is obliged to grant concessions to only one bidder, which, according to Vaesken, goes against the National Constitution.
“There are 212,000 Paraguayans without work. We have been studying this project for a year, it was sent to committee, and public hearings were held. We heard that the government has a bill that ends the monopoly on gambling, but it has never sent anything,” Vaesken stated, noting that his initiative had already been postponed for 90 days in April of this year.
“This project only seeks to remove the word exclusivity so that this country can open its doors to investors. As the law stands now, they cannot come to invest in Paraguay. This bill could help President Santiago Peña achieve the creation of the 500,000 jobs he promised during the campaign,” argued the liberal deputy, attempting to avoid another postponement of the debate.
In November fourteen legislators from the Chamber of Deputies presented the bill aimed to modify Paraguay’s gambling law. If approved the bill would modify articles 8, 11, 13, 21, 22 and 23 of the law. Lawmakers headed by Deputy Billy Vaesken have put forward a number of modifications that would end the way the law allows for monopolies in certain sectors of the gaming industry in the country.
Last month The Paraguayan Association of Gambling Operators (APOJA) announced that they would hold a public hearing in the Chamber of Deputies to discuss the bill aimed at modifying Law No. 1,016/1997 in an attempt to eliminate the monopoly on the concession of gambling activities. However the hearing was delayed after the news of the death of a national deputy.