Brazil's Lula bans online gambling. Describes it as "cancer"

[robelneo]

If the ban goes into effect, the biggest winners would be dark market crypto casinos, which don't care too much about compliance with Brazilian law. I think crypto in general will see increased adoption in Brazil.

If they are totally banning without a contingency measure like health care to help gamblers ease up on their addiction, and players on something to turn to as a replacement for gambling, then yes, the underground casinos are going to benefit from this scenario.
The government will need to beef up its police organization and the judiciary to fight these underground casinos, and ignore the fact that gambling is a big industry that can help their economy to sustain its growth, now so many of the government resources are diverted to combating illegal casinos.

[rbynxx]

The president does not decide this alone, this "provisional measure" needs to be approved by Congress to be valid, and the gambling sector is already mobilizing to prevent this to happening.... honestly, I do not think they will be able to reverse it because this is being used as a political campaign... bets has left many people in debt, many see this law as something good and if a politician goes against it they risk not being accepted by the popular vote.

The 85 licenses that government granted, in fact, will not be returned, I think that is veeeery wrong, an absurd! It should be returned proportionally to the amount of license time that the sites would still have had the right to operate...
But, we have a huge deficit, so the government needs this money! They already rob us with very high taxes, now they also want to rob the casinos.

Unfortunately Brazil is a risk for entrepreneurs!

The worst of all is that this would not solve the problem, it will only move people to the black market and to use VPNs.

It's really interesting they time it when the election is nearing and what about that "Debt Relief Program"? I don't know if that's a good countermeasure but more like an experimentation to me. The report says there are estimated around 30M online gamblers and yeah that would lush them more to illegal sites indeed. I'm afraid there's some happening on your country if Congress approves it within 120 days or earlier, hope not that serious especially some rallies.

I think the government has the full right not to issue any refund, besides, do you think these companies already made some ROI over the course of their operations or the government do really care for their citizen citing it's a crisis or an economic threat?

[rdluffy]

I posted a thread here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5594402.msg67152518#msg67152518
But it's locked right now, I tried to post the updates...

What’s happening here is the perfect example of how not to govern a country

I’d say the problem here is that the current president is running for re-election and is losing in the polls
Out of desperation, he’s trying to take populist measures to try to win the election again
What he’s doing makes no sense

The whole system here is corrupt

He’s caused a huge mess because all the casinos were licensed, with various sponsorships for soccer clubs, commitments, etc., and now everyone is in a bad situation because of this measure

[asriloni]

What’s happening here is the perfect example of how not to govern a country

I’d say the problem here is that the current president is running for re-election and is losing in the polls
Out of desperation, he’s trying to take populist measures to try to win the election again
What he’s doing makes no sense

The whole system here is corrupt

He’s caused a huge mess because all the casinos were licensed, with various sponsorships for soccer clubs, commitments, etc., and now everyone is in a bad situation because of this measure

I could not agree more. This populist decision by Lula is no more than his desperation because Bolsonaro is leading the polls now. So he takes this decision with the hope he can gamble to win some voters, but we know brazil has more than 11% its population as gamblers. So we can also expect this decision to be a boomerang if all of people who will be impacted decided to vote against him.

[BitBakerr1]

I really don’t know why the other thread was locked, now a new thread has been created to continue the discussion with new update about the incident going on in Brazil concerning banning casino.
This is one of the reasons why some thread should not be locked just like that especially a thread that has the ability to continue with more update that we will be coming out from the particular topic.

The Brazil government knows how casino is affecting their country and whatever they decide to do about casino is  actually their business and if the citizens actually wants to continue gambling, they can use VPN to access other casinos.

[Hispo]

If you asked me, this is rather an election strategy being pushed forward by Lula and his party, and not something completely ideological from him.

The fact he is doing this after allowing casinos to be regulated and acquire licenses for them to operate in Brazil, only shows he is rather desperate for getting more votes from religious and conservative people who are against gambling in Brazil.

In the end, this will only benefit underground gambling services, which will get all the volume and won't have to pay anything to the state in order to continue to operate. Hardcore Brazilian gamblers will continuet to gamble, even if becomes illegal in the country.

[el che]

...

That's typical of communists: stealing under the pretext of doing good.

...

From a leftist point of view, this whole mess is a classic example of how capitalism fails. On one side, letting greedy gambling companies exploit the working class, trapping millions in debt just to make huge profits, is a terrible social problem that should have never been allowed in the first place.
On the other side, doing a rushed political ban right before an election isn't about protecting everyday workers, it's just a top down power move to calm public anger while leaving real economic struggles alone. Instead of fixing the root causes of why working people turn to gambling out of desperation, it's just a desperate scramble for political survival by politicians caught in a tight race.

[Coyster]

Here are two excerpts from one of the links in the OP:

Lula described how he had heard from families who had sold everything in their houses because of their gambling addictions

Earlier this week at the UN General Assembly, Lula accused the industry of "transforming addiction into profit".

While i understand that it is sad when people cannot control themselves when gambling, and it leads to irreparable losses. But if the president decides that addiction is the sole reason why he is banning gambling, then there are a lot of things people can and do get addicted to, and he can get right to banning them as well, lol.

I don't think this is enough to ban a regulated industry that is generating huge revenue in the country, particularly in their sport's industry. I agree that the decision is purely politically motivated and Lula isn't looking out for the wellbeing of problem gamblers, but trying to score cheap points to stay in power.

[Ishicryptic]

Are there any Brazilians on this forum able to provide more insights on what is going on in Brazil?

The president does not decide this alone, this "provisional measure" needs to be approved by Congress to be valid, and the gambling sector is already mobilizing to prevent this to happening.... honestly, I do not think they will be able to reverse it because this is being used as a political campaign... bets has left many people in debt, many see this law as something good and if a politician goes against it they risk not being accepted by the popular vote.

The worst of all is that this would not solve the problem, it will only move people to the black market and to use VPNs.

Clearly a president that wants reelection would leverage on any weaknesses to gain the sympathy of the majority that are against certain policies so if a lot of people in Brazil are complaining about gambling addiction the president will want to gain their votes by banning it. The president should know that although a ban on gambling will reduce addiction but it's not a total cure for it, dedicated and addicted gamblers will always find a way by accesing the black market and exploring the use of VPN to bypass restrictions.

Online gambling have come to stay and instead of banning it in a gambling country it is better to have some restrictions like monitoring underaged gambling, have sensitization about the dangers of gambling addiction and perhaps regulate bankroll limits.

[pawel7777]

I am Brazilian

And unfortunately this is not just a bill, but it is an actual policy change because the current president issued a "provisional measure" to ban not only bettings but also any type of ads for online casino.
This sites can no longer accept new deposits and users have until October 5th to withdraw their balances from sites because after October 6th the sites also need to be offline.

The president does not decide this alone, this "provisional measure" needs to be approved by Congress to be valid, and the gambling sector is already mobilizing to prevent this to happening.... honestly, I do not think they will be able to reverse it because this is being used as a political campaign... bets has left many people in debt, many see this law as something good and if a politician goes against it they risk not being accepted by the popular vote.

Thanks very much for sharing the Brazilian perspective.
So it's mostly motivated by a political campaign? It's a bit of a surprise to me, as I would have guessed that move would be rather unpopular among the wider population, unless the uncontrolled gambling is really a big societal problem.
If they want to go ahead with a total ban on gambling, then I think it makes sense to ban gambling advertisement as well, but I wonder how far will they go with that, e.g. would bitcointalk be banned because of all the gambling ads in signatures etc

(...)
The 85 licenses that government granted, in fact, will not be returned, I think that is veeeery wrong, an absurd! It should be returned proportionally to the amount of license time that the sites would still have had the right to operate...
But, we have a huge deficit, so the government needs this money! They already rob us with very high taxes, now they also want to rob the casinos.

Unfortunately Brazil is a risk for entrepreneurs!

That's the thing, not only keeping the licence fees sound highly immoral, but it makes Brazil look not very serious for potential big investors.
A government that makes a 180-degree U-turn out of the blue on its own policies is always a big red flag. It's hard to expect big investments if the legal landscape can be changed on a whim.

(...)
The worst of all is that this would not solve the problem, it will only move people to the black market and to use VPNs.

This is my thought too, but who knows, maybe it could have a long-term positive effect. The ban is unlikely to deter any current gambling enthusiasts, they will easily find a different way. But it could mean that fewer people will get addicted to gambling in the future.
Personally, I'm not a big fan of bans. I think sheltering people from potential threats can result in a weaker population. But bans are sometimes justified if the problem becomes so rampant that it starts posing a threat to the functioning of a society. There are some differences between populations/ethnicities i.e. in respect of impulse control or proclivity to addictions.

[rdluffy]

...

I could not agree more. This populist decision by Lula is no more than his desperation because Bolsonaro is leading the polls now. So he takes this decision with the hope he can gamble to win some voters, but we know brazil has more than 11% its population as gamblers. So we can also expect this decision to be a boomerang if all of people who will be impacted decided to vote against him.

Is this image from Polymarket?
The government even blocked Brazilians from accessing Polymarket, and, quite coincidentally, that happened the same week the candidate fell behind in the polls

Anyway, it’s a great example for people from other countries to see how ungoverned Brazil is

People who bet will continue to do so, using VPNs and crypto, so they can be free to make their own choices

Soccer clubs are desperate and are already planning actions against the government, since they’ll have to honor the salaries of players who were counting on betting sponsors

[criptoevangelista]

The most bizarre part of this whole story is that President Lula himself signed the law that regulated casinos and betting platforms. Anyone wanting to operate in the country even had to pay a $30 million license fee. So everyone paid up and was operating legally, and now betting companies are everywhere in Brazil, sponsoring teams, TV networks, and up until now everything was above board. Then the president decides to ban it all, and where does that leave the companies? What about all that invested money? On top of that, the government is suing the betting companies for addiction damages, asking for $1 billion in compensation. What's happening in Brazil is absolute madness.

[Chinesebaby]

He also does not feel obliged to return the gambling licence fees that around 85 companies paid in order to be allowed to operate in Brazil. Those licences, most of which are said to be purchased within the last 2 years, are worth approximately half a billion USD.
I read that that move could also potentially bankrupt some of the biggest football clubs in the country that are reliant on sponsor money from gambling businesses. I hear that he offered them loans to mitigate liquidity risks, but that's just not the same.

Despite how the Brazilian government might want to have a full crack down on gambling in Brazil, it will definitely not stop it's citizens from gambling either with the use of VPN or through third parties if the IP address of all crypto casinos happens to be blocked entirely, but I doubt if such will happen, because if it does, that's how lots of people working for online gambling platforms too will also lose their jobs if the government tries to ban it entirely. And likewise, it will be a case of fraud if the government ban gambling even after taking 5 to 10 years of gambling license.

[pawel7777]

Despite how the Brazilian government might want to have a full crack down on gambling in Brazil, it will definitely not stop it's citizens from gambling either with the use of VPN (...)

We live in a time when you can get a free VPN as an integrated feature in some of the major browsers, so bypassing the ban should be fairly easy.
It's worth noting that Brazil also banned Twitter (now X) some time ago and, if I'm not mistaken, they also proposed financial fines for trying to bypass the ban using VPN, but I believe they backed out of that idea. I don't think they would go as far as to penalise gamblers for accessing gambling sites through VPN. If they see gamblers as victims, imposing financial penalties on them would make no sense.

But I think what would have the biggest impact is the ban on advertising gambling businesses.

[aioc]

Ahead of the impending Brazilian presidential election, the current president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, decided to unexpectedly crack down on online gambling.

Since an election is coming, the current President of Brazil can still run. This could be a political strategy that could backfire or benefit his reelection bid, but banning it unexpectedly could pose a huge issue with the gambling industry if he did not make a study of how large the community of gamblers is, he could lose their trust in him and go for his rival, if there is a call for stopping gambling by the majority of the people then this could benefit him

If the ban goes into effect, the biggest winners would be dark market crypto casinos, which don't care too much about compliance with Brazilian law. I think crypto in general will see increased adoption in Brazil.

A sudden ban on gambling will create a big demand for underground casinos; the operators will greatly benefit because they will not have to pay taxes, but will have to pay for protection, so the government loses revenue, and corrupt officials will benefit.

[Hispo]

... What's happening in Brazil is absolute madness.

Yes, it is madness.
It pretty much shows that all this stuff which the president is doing with their national gambling industry is a product of utter improvisation and there is no planning behind it.
It is like... Changing the course of the gambling industry in Brazil because of the will and whim of the president.
In any serious country the president and the state in general would be forced to respect those licenses which were issued for 30 million so gambling could not be outlawed for several years.

This is a political and populist move which is being pulled by Lula in order to have a chance to defeat Bolsonaro in the incoming presidential elections.