"I had, in fact, two meetings in my office, with hearings requested by the then provider of Santa Casa Edmundo Martinho, who was accompanied by the vice-provider João Pedro Correia", said Eurico Brilhante Dias, during the hearing in the Committee on Labour, Social Security and Inclusion, on the financial situation of Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa (SCML) and the internationalisation of social games.

The former minister, who is currently a deputy of the Socialist Party in the Assembly of the Republic, recalled that "on the first occasion it is clearly noted that Santa Casa (...) signalled the desire to internationalise, had a presence already known in the Mozambican market, had immediate objectives in the Angolan market and the Brazilian market".

Regarding the Brazilian market, Eurico Brilhante Dias said that Santa Casa had two priorities, one of them the instant lottery, and was interested in the states of Rio de Janeiro and Brasília.

He pointed out that Santa Casa is a company "administered by the Portuguese State", although it is not a direct guardianship or a general directorate, but with a Board designated from the guardianship.

"What we did was to inform, through the appropriate channels, the embassies, the diplomatic posts in Brazil", he said, admitting having made a visit to Brazil, which was framed by the Portuguese presidency of the European Union in 2021, in which he brought the theme to one of the bilateral conversations with the Brazilian government.

"In one of my meetings with the Brazilian government, what I did was to signal at the time to the Brazilian government that Santa Casa had informed it, in this case the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, that it was interested in participating in the gambling business", said the former Secretary of State.

He assured that it was merely a signal and that he had no intervention in the business or in any operation of the internationalisation of social games.

Regarding the second meeting he had with the administrators of SCML on the same subject, Brilhante Dias said that it served to take note of the developments of the business and that he did not receive "particularly worrying news".

He also stressed that the Secretary of State for Internationalisation does not do business, the companies do, and that it is up to the State to support and not intervene in their choices.

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