Commission of Constitution, Justice and Citizenship (CCJ) approved last week the bill presented by senator Jarbas Vasconcelos (PMDB-PE), who criminalizes games of chance operation, including traditional “juego del bicho”and electronic games. The proposal (PLS 274/06) withdraws the games of chance operators from the Law of Penal Violation (Decree-Law 3.688/41) to insert it in the Penal Code (Decreree-Law nº 2.848/40).

New Zealand's casinos have been told they will have to pay the Government for a crackdown on their own operations. The Department of Internal Affairs takes NZD 4.6 million a year in fees from the six casinos but wants to take more to solve the problems they have with organised crime. The department says its ability to deal with money laundering and loan sharks has been limited by a lack of resources and casinos like Auckland's SkyCity - which pays NZD 2.2 million a year - will likely have to pay more.