Surge in online sports betting is ruining thousands of Brazilians

LETTER FROM RIO DE JANEIRO

In 2016, Carlos (first name changed), a 32-year-old sports coach from Belo Horizonte in southeastern Brazil, moved to Rio de Janeiro, a city renowned for its fitness culture. Away from his family and friends, he started betting on sports on the British platform Sportingbet. It wasn’t long before he couldn’t get enough. “I’d pretend to have stomach pains so that I could spend hours in the toilets gambling in peace,” confided the football fan, at a meeting organized by Gamblers Anonymous (GA), a self-help network for people addicted to gambling, in Flamengo, a well-off district of Rio de Janeiro.

In Brazil, the sports betting and gaming market is booming. Between 2020 and 2023, the number of companies in the sector rose from 51 to 308, according to PwC. In 2023, these companies generated revenues of 120 billion reais (around €19.4 billion). And with good reason: In the absence of regulation, the platforms, often foreign, enjoy almost total freedom to heavily promote their services on television and social media, often using local celebrities such as footballer Neymar. And many Brazilians are falling into the trap: According to a survey by the Locomotiva Institute, published in August, 25 million new people bet online in the first seven months of 2024, an average of 3.5 million new punters per month. A total of 52 million people have already taken part in this activity in a country of 215.3 million inhabitants.

“More and more people who have become addicted are coming to us,” said one GA member with concern. According to him, “250 new people signed up” to the organization’s 12 groups operating in Rio de Janeiro, between the end of the pandemic, in 2020, and mid-2023.

‘I even had to borrow money from friends’

Located behind a church, the GA hall in Flamengo was packed. In addition to Carlos, around 30 other people were sitting on school chairs, listening attentively as compulsive gamblers shared their experiences. Many of them told of being ruined by their addiction. According to Itau Bank, Brazilians lost 23.9 billion reais out of the 68.2 billion reais spent on online betting between June 2023 and June 2024. Yet 40% of punters earn less than 5,200 reais (€848) a month, according to PwC. The result is that 86% of them are in debt and 64% are on the insolvency lists of Serasa, the organization that manages individuals’ credit histories. “I’ve even had to borrow money from friends and family members who earn less than me [to fund my bets],” revealed Carlos. When he joined GA in July 2022, his debt stood at 80,000 reais.

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