Brazil Set to Ban Online Betting Over Gambling Addiction Concerns

The Brazilian government is trying to solve a sports gambling situation among its citizens, currently affecting household incomes. This Sunday, the president President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said that online betting websites will be banned if new regulations don’t solve the “addiction.”

According to Reuters, soccer and bet-loving Brazilians have developed an increasing interest in sports betting since it was legalized in the country in 2018. This has affected vulnerable communities and bankrupted families.

After the municipal elections in Sao Paulo, Lula addressed the topic: “If regulation doesn’t work, I won’t hesitate in putting an end to (betting) definitively.”

Since 2003, The government has been distributing money to reduce poverty and inequality with its Bolsa Familia welfare program and earlier this year the central bank revealed that Brazilian recipients of these benefits had spent 3 billion reais ($550 million) on bets. Lula said it was unacceptable that low-income families were using the money for this purpose.

The government is considering regulating the use of the Bolsa Familia money to ban online bets, but an official announcement has yet to be made regarding this.

“Everyone knows that the person going to buy bread in the morning will make a small bet using the bread money,” said Lula. “But what I cannot allow is betting to turn into a disease, an addiction, and for people to become dependent on it, because I know people who lost their house and car.”

According to The Brazilian Report, last week Fernando Haddad, Brazil’s Finance Minister, announced that 500 to 600 sports betting websites will be taken offline during October as they didn’t comply with the new regulation requirements.

Brazil has also recently suspended social media platform X, and Meta decided to suspend generative AI services after the government’s requirements and concerns for data use.