Brazil’s long-delayed gambling legislation likely won’t come up for a vote until the spring after legislators decided they had more pressing issues on their plates.

Brazilian legislators had hoped to schedule a vote on their two competing gambling bills – the Senate’s 186/2014 and the Chamber of Deputies’ 442/1991 – in early December but both bills were bumped due to other priorities, including dealing with the fallout from a Supreme Court injunction removing Senate President Renan Calheiros from office after he was indicted for embezzlement.

On Tuesday, Senator Fernando Bezerra Coelho appeared on Radio Jornal de Pernambuco’s Super Morning program, at which he confirmed that the 186/2014 bill had been referred to the Committee on Constitution, Justice and Citizenship (CCJ) during the legislature’s final deliberative week earlier this month.

Coelho, a key backer of Brazil’s efforts to liberalize its gambling market, offered hope that the CCJ would be prompt in analyzing the bill “so that it can finally be deliberated by the Plenary.” But Coelho suggested it might take until “March, April, we can gather support necessary for the activity of gambling to be legalized in Brazil.”