.svg)
A Brazilian consumer survey has revealed that nearly two-thirds of those who participate in online gambling have had their income “compromised” by it.
The Brazilian Society of Retail and Consumption (SBVC) conducted a survey of 1,337 people in April and May. Of those surveyed, 508 participated in online betting and 829 did not.
Among online gamblers, 23 percent reported that they had, at some point, stopped buying clothes to continue gambling, 14 percent gave up hygiene and beauty products, and 11 percent stopped healthcare and medications.
Young people between the ages of 18 and 24 were most likely to give up purchasing something in order to fund their betting, with 28 percent reporting that they had done so versus just 5 percent of gamblers in the 55-64 age category.
Nearly half (49 percent) said that they bet more in 2024 than they did in 2023, with 35 percent saying they bet less.
Conversely, 21 percent of participants in the survey reported that they have bet in the past but no longer do so. Of those people, 56 percent said that the reason was concern about addiction. Only 12 percent said that a lack of money had stopped them gambling.
In terms of what attracts them to place a bet, 61 percent of gamblers said that a platform must offer a welcome bonus to entice them, coming in second place of importance after a friendly user interface.
That underlines one of the key policy changes coming to Brazil's online betting market as a result of a new regulatory regime due to be fully implemented at the end of this year.
As enacted in December 2023, Law 14.970 generally prohibits bonus, incentives or prior advantages to participate in betting, although the wording is open to interpretation and operators are awaiting further guidance as to the scope of the prohibition.
Earlier this month, the new betting regulator established under Brazil's Ministry of Finance stated that the provisions of Law 14.790 meant that only entry or welcome bonuses are prohibited, while further rules related to bonuses more generally would be established in future.
The survey also found that 77 percent of gamblers focused their bets on football, an unsurprising result in a country that initially had separate bills for sports betting and other gambling offerings, as football betting is so pervasive and thus easier to legalise.
Casino slot games were the next most popular form of online gambling, with 50 percent of gamblers who responded saying that they participated in those games.
When it came to influencing factors in placing a bet, 53 percent placed bets on their favourite team or athlete, while 25 percent used recommendations from a “sports betting influencer”.
A total of 71 percent said that social media is their main source of “updates on news and events related to sports betting”, including Instagram, Tiktok, Facebook and influencers.
Influencers promoting gambling have landed themselves in hot water as of late, mainly for advertising the popular slot game Fortune Tiger with allegedly misleading simulations of themselves winning. These cases have resulted in a series of negative headlines in Brazil as influencers have faced prosecution.
Forthcoming regulations set to be released in the coming weeks by the Ministry of Finance will reportedly include provisions to curb the use of influencers or celebrities to promote online betting.
According to Brazil’s newspaper of record, Folha de S. Paolo, an ordinance to regulate online slot games such as Fortune Tiger is also expected to be published imminently.
So too is an ordinance with specific requirements related to responsible gambling, Regis Dudena, the Ministry of Finance's newly appointed secretary of bets and prizes, said in a recent interview with Globo. That will include an obligation for operators to monitor patterns of play and intervene where necessary.
Dudena told Globo that consumer education was also important to ensure bettors play with regulated sites, "where they actually have the chance to entertain themselves in a responsible way, without putting their mental and financial health at risk".
Additional reporting by James Kilsby.
