Brazil's Lula says will ban sports bets if 'addiction' not regulated
Betting hitting household incomes
Worried about gambling addiction
Credit cards for gambling now banned
BRASILIA, Oct 6 (Reuters) -Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose government is trying to stop a sports bets craze consuming household incomes, said on Sunday he will ban online betting if regulation does not cure "addiction" by bettors.
Soccer-mad and bet-loving Brazilians have fallen hard for sports betting since it was legalized in 2018 and bank studies show that bets are hitting household incomes, reducing consumer spending and bankrupting families.
"If regulation doesn't work, I won't hesitate in putting an end to (betting) definitively," the told reporters after casting his vote in municipal elections in Sao Paulo.
Lula said it was unacceptable that low-income families that receive social security transfers through Brazil's Bolsa Familia program should be spending the money on bets.
Brazil's Secretariat of Prizes and Bets (SPA) published a list last week of sports betting companies licensed to operate some 200 brands of fixed-odds sports betting in what has rapidly become one of the fifth-largest betting markets in the world.
They include the biggest names in the betting world, such as Flutter Entertainment plc FLTRF.L, the Entain group ENT.L that owns Ladbrokes and Sweden's Betsson AB BETSb.ST that operates from Malta.
The companies have to open offices in Brazil and associate with a local partner. Under new regulations, credit cards will not be allowed for use in betting. Hundreds of companies were rejected for not fulfilling Brazil's conditions.
Still, damage to household incomes, and mainly to poorer families, has worried the government and its concerns increased after the central bank reported that 3 billion reais ($550 million) was spent on bets in August by recipients of the Bolsa Familia program.
Lula called a cabinet meeting on Thursday to discuss whether to ban Bolsa Familia beneficiaries from betting, but no decision was taken.
Lula does not want to stop betting because Brazilians will bet anyway, he said, pointing out that bans have not stopped illegal cockfighting and the clandestine betting on numbers, a form of gambling called "jogo do bicho" that has existed since the 19th Century.
"Everyone knows that the person going to buy bread in the morning will make a small bet using the bread money," Lula said. "But what I cannot allow is betting to turn into a disease, an addiction, and for people to become dependent on it, because I know people who lost their house and car."
($1 = 5.4511 reais)
Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Mark Porter
免责声明: XM Group仅提供在线交易平台的执行服务和访问权限，并允许个人查看和/或使用网站或网站所提供的内容，但无意进行任何更改或扩展，也不会更改或扩展其服务和访问权限。所有访问和使用权限，将受下列条款与条例约束：(i) 条款与条例；(ii) 风险提示；以及(iii) 完整免责声明。请注意，网站所提供的所有讯息，仅限一般资讯用途。此外，XM所有在线交易平台的内容并不构成，也不能被用于任何未经授权的金融市场交易邀约和/或邀请。金融市场交易对于您的投资资本含有重大风险。
所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。
本网站上由XM和第三方供应商所提供的所有内容，包括意见、新闻、研究、分析、价格、其他资讯和第三方网站链接，皆保持不变，并作为一般市场评论所提供，而非投资性建议。所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为适用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。请确保您已阅读并完全理解，XM非独立投资研究提示和风险提示相关资讯，更多详情请点击 这里。
