The president of the National Institute of Social Security, Alessandro Stefanutto, stated that the agency he leads is conducting a regulatory study.
Brazil.- The president of the National Institute of Social Security (INSS), Alessandro Stefanutto, declared that the agency is considering prohibiting the use of the Continuous Cash Benefit (BPC) funds in sports betting. This benefit is granted to people with disabilities and low-income elderly adults.
“The BPC is to mitigate misery. If it is used for sports betting, either we are granting the wrong benefit, because the person is not miserable, or there is a misuse of resources,” he stated in an interview with Estadão.
According to Stefanutto, the technical area of the INSS is conducting a regulatory study on this topic. Once completed, it will be presented to the Ministry of Social Security. He also mentioned that he will request information about payments to bets from the Central Bank (BC).
In September 2024, the financial institution published a study indicating that sports betting received R$ 10.500m (USD 1.728m) from beneficiaries of the Bolsa Familia between January and August of the previous year. The BC estimated that, in August, 5 million people belonging to the program sent R$ 3.000m (USD 526m) through Pix. However, the study left doubts about whether this really occurred or if there was some kind of error at the time of data collection.
See also: A new investigation in Brazil determined that online betting did not increase indebtedness
The use of INSS money for sports betting is already prohibited for beneficiaries of the Meu INSS Vale+ program. This card allows beneficiaries to advance up to R$ 150 of their monthly benefit, without interest or fees. The advanced amount is directly deducted from the payroll the following month.
