The Brazilian president explained that he will backtrack on the regulation if it is observed that it does not yield the expected results.
Brazil.- President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stated that if the regulation of sports betting companies does not produce the expected results, the government will backtrack and the service will be canceled in Brazil.
“We will see if the regulation can handle it. If the regulation takes care of it, the problem will be solved. If it cannot withstand it, it will end. That has to be very clear. There is no control over the most humble people, children with a mobile in hand making bets. We do not want that,” he declared on Metrópole radio, regarding the application of Law 14.790. It is the second time in the span of two weeks that the Brazilian president publicly acknowledges that if the regulation does not grant the desired results, they will proceed to go back to “square one” in terms of legislation and the Brazilian market will cease to be regulated.
As the Brazilian president has stated on more than one occasion, he is against betting, but he does not seek to prohibit it because it will happen anyway. “Everyone knows that the person who goes to buy bread in the morning will make a small bet with the bread money,” Lula said earlier this month. “But what I cannot allow is for betting to become a disease, an addiction, and for people to become dependent on it, because I know people who lost their house and their car,” the president concluded.
Since last year, the government has been working on regulations to define the operational parameters of these betting sites, a sector that is booming in the country. A survey by the Central Bank shows that Brazilians spent around R$ 20,000m (USD 3,500m) per month on online betting in the first eight months of 2024. In response, the Ministry of Finance created rules to prohibit, for example, the use of credit cards and the social program Bolsa Familia for this purpose.
See also: Block on companies without an operating license: more than 2,000 betting sites will be shut down in Brazil
In addition to expressing his caution regarding the application of the law, Lula da Silva also met with the heads of the main Brazilian private banks. In the meeting, the president explained to the heads of the financial entities that they must find ways to have mechanisms to address the issue of betting and the spending done by bettors.
