Brazil's Lula says will ban sports bets if 'addiction' not regulated

Betsson AB

06/10/2024 16:20

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      Betting hitting household incomes
    

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      Worried about gambling addiction
    

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      Credit cards for gambling now banned
    

  
       BRASILIA, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Brazil President Luiz Inacio
Lula da Silva, whose government is trying to stop a sports bets
craze consuming household incomes, said on Sunday he will ban
online betting if regulation does not cure "addiction" by
bettors.
    Soccer-mad and bet-loving Brazilians have fallen hard for 
sports betting since it was legalized in 2018 and bank studies
show that bets are hitting household incomes, reducing consumer
spending and bankrupting families.
    "If regulation doesn't work, I won't hesitate in putting an
end to (betting) definitively," the told reporters after casting
his vote in municipal elections in Sao Paulo.
    Lula said it was unacceptable that low-income families that
receive social security transfers through Brazil's Bolsa Familia
program should be spending the money on bets.
    Brazil's Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA) published a
list last week of sports betting companies licensed to operate
some 200 brands of fixed-odds sports betting in what has rapidly
become one of the fifth-largest betting markets in the world.
    They include the biggest names in the betting world, such as
Flutter Entertainment plc  FLTRF.L , the Entain group  ENT.L 
that owns Ladbrokes and Sweden's Betsson AB  BETSb.ST  that
operates from Malta.
    The companies have to open offices in Brazil and associate
with a local partner. Under new regulations, credit cards will
not be allowed for use in betting. Hundreds of companies were
rejected for not fulfilling Brazil's conditions.
    Still, damage to household incomes, and mainly to poorer
families, has worried the government and its concerns increased
after the central bank reported that 3 billion reais ($550
million) was spent on bets in August by recipients of the Bolsa
Familia program.
    Lula called a cabinet meeting on Thursday to discuss whether
to ban Bolsa Familia beneficiaries from betting, but no decision
was taken.
    Lula does not want to stop betting because Brazilians will
bet anyway, he said, pointing out that bans have not stopped
illegal cockfighting and the clandestine betting on numbers, a
form of gambling called "jogo do bicho" that has existed since
the 19th Century.
    "Everyone knows that the person going to buy bread in the
morning will make a small bet using the bread money," Lula said.
"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."
    
($1 = 5.4511 reais)

 (Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Mark Porter)
 ((anthony.boadle@thomsonreuters.com;  +55 61 98204-1110   ;
Reuters Messaging: https://twitter.com/anthonyboadle))