During an interview on the program Roda Viva, from "TV Cultura", the Vice President and Minister of Development, Industry and Commerce, Geraldo Alckmin, stated that if the regulation of the sports betting market does not yield results, the Lula government should ban the activity in Brazil. "I think it will be well done and will have results. But, if necessary, it will be prohibited," he assured.
The regulation of the sports betting market was the subject of a meeting at the Palácio do Planalto last week. At the meeting, Lula and the ministers discussed, for example, the possibility of the petista administration preventing bets by beneficiaries of the Bolsa Família, a vulnerable group that could be susceptible to indebtedness on these platforms.
After the meeting, however, the Executive Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Dario Durigan, explained that, for now, there will be no blocking of the Bolsa Família card for use in bets.
The issue, he said, will be analyzed starting this week, when the blocking of about 2,000 betting addresses that are not on the positive list published by the government is scheduled.
Previously, the Ministry of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services countered, in a technical note, information that spending on online sports betting caused a decline in retail and increased the indebtedness of the population.
The department headed by Vice President Geraldo Alckmin also questions conclusions from the Central Bank about family spending on bets.
The document from the Ministry of Development argues that trade data in the country do not allow identifying a slowdown in the sector. The technical note, signed on Friday (4), presents data on the performance of the retail sector.
"The data provided by IBGE indicate that commerce in Brazil is growing, with retail sales showing the following variations: In July 2024, sales grew 0.6% compared to June. In the first half of 2024, retail commerce accumulated a high of 5.3%. In the last 12 months until July, retail commerce accumulated a high of 3.7%".
In the technical note, Development also states that "it is even more complex to attribute any variation in the results of the sector to spending on bets and gambling", questioning, even, data presented by the Central Bank in a note sent to Senator Omar Aziz (PSD-AM).
Source: GMB
