Senator Omar Aziz will officially request on Monday (16) at the Attorney General's Office (PGR), a suspension of betting websites and apps until the regulation of the sector takes effect in Brazil on January 1, 2025. The lawmaker will ask the PGR to propose a Non-Compliance with Fundamental Precepts Action (ADPF), with a request for an urgent injunction, to the Supreme Federal Court (STF).
The goal, according to the senator, is to take down the websites. "Just like they did with Twitter. It's simple. Especially since they are destroying families", stated Aziz in a video published on social networks this Sunday (15).
The project that regulated betting, paved the way for online casinos, and created rules for these companies' operations in Brazil was approved by Congress in December 2023. In the Senate, the proposal had the vote of Aziz, who said he was "in favor of approval, but with regulation".
In the video, the senator criticizes the ease with which young people access bets and virtual casinos. "Who is playing? Children, youths. Who is promoting this? Pseudo-leaders, pseudo-idols, who, instead of teaching good things, to young people, children, and adolescents, are inducing these people to gamble", he said.
Aziz also highlights the negative financial consequences, especially to the most vulnerable. "Who loses with this? Always the humblest, the poorest. Families are skipping meals to gamble. It's absurd what's happening to our country. We are not a banana republic, here there must be control and regulation", he states.
As reported by Estadão, a proposal from the Ministry of Finance to create a task force against gambling addiction has been shelved for a year.
In the second half of 2023, the department suggested the creation of an interministerial working group to act in the prevention and treatment of addiction to sports betting – with stark warnings about pathological dependence, the so-called ludopathy. At the time, the Finance stated that the group "is in the process of being formed".
In this vacuum of more comprehensive and immediate interministerial policies, proposals are already beginning to emerge in Congress to limit the operation of bets and the reach of online games.
Among them, there is a Proposed Amendment to the Constitution (PEC) that equates betting with alcohol and tobacco, imposing legal restrictions on the sector's advertising, as well as a bill to limit the amount of bets per CPF.
Deputy Luiz Gastão (PSD-CE), author of the PEC, is collecting signatures in the Chamber to be able to file the proposal. To Estadão, he stated that Congress should have paid more attention to the debate on the negative externalities of betting.
"I think there was a lack of greater criteria regarding access, which became easy", said the deputy to the report. However, the criticisms also extended to the government: "There is a slowness in taking a position".
Source: Estadão Conteúdo
