Brazil Bans Online Betting

(reuters.com)

45 points | by bratao 1 hour ago

6 comments

  • HyperL0gi 57 minutes ago
    Recipe for winning: introduce a problem, watch society get destroyed by it while you profit from it, then when a big portion of the poor population has too much debt because of the problem you legalized, ban it and offer a solution a couple of months before the election. Save the people, get elected. Win win
    • namelessindivid 45 minutes ago
      "Betting" was made legal by Temer (2018), the Bolsonaro administration (2019-2022) should have regulated it, but they refused to do so. Lula (the current president running for reelection) did finally regulated them back in 2023 (i.e., made them finally pay taxes and introduced a few protection mechanisms and data sharing obligations), however it was still a societal problem as you put it, which they finally fixed today by banning. Your comment makes it seem like the current administration allowed bets in the first place. That didn't happen.
      • ___msh___ 26 minutes ago
        As per your own words, they did allow it in the same measure as Bolsonaro's government did. Also, if Lula had indeed "regulated" it as you claim, perhaps things wouldn't have gone downhill to the current woeful state eh?
    • cassianoleal 49 minutes ago
      If only that actually matched history...

      The so called "bets" were authorised to operate in Brazil in 2018 via law 13.756/2018, in the first year of Jair Bolsonaro's presidency.

      Jair Bolsonaro, who was found guilty of Federal crimes and is paying his sentence under house arrest due to frail health, is the father of Flávio Bolsonaro, main adversary of incumbent President Lula da Silva.

      So it is in fact the opposite of what you described.

      • HyperL0gi 30 minutes ago
        Since you conveniently stopped at the beginning of the story, let me finish it for the sake of clarity.

        In 2018, the president was Michel Temer, not Bolsonaro. Temer had been Dilma Rousseff's vice president and took office after she was impeached in 2016. Dilma, by the way, was Lula's handpicked successor. That December, Temer signed Law 13.756, which legalized sports betting but left the regulation for later.

        That regulation came under Lula: on December 29, 2023, he signed Law 14.790, which set a licensing fee of up to R$ 30 million and authorized betting companies to operate legally in Brazil.

        So, technically speaking, it started with a president elected on Dilma's ticket and was sealed by Lula.

      • ___msh___ 29 minutes ago
        Lies. This was not signed into law in Bolsonaro's term, but rather Temer's.

        And since you mentioned Bolsonaro's prison term in relation to basically nothing in the original comment, I think it's fair to mention Lula has also served a substantial prison term for what is probably the most massive corruption scheme in all of history, and had been released so he could run again though judicial maneuvering by a corrupt supreme court.

    • llagerlof 50 minutes ago
      I mean, they even cancelled a few taxes that they themselves had approved in the past, just before the elections. What a coincidence!
  • nightsd01 46 minutes ago
    Honestly this is a good thing, and we should ban online sports and casino betting in the US too. They add absolutely zero value to society, they just cause harm.

    Studies have shown that most of the profit from online sports gambling for example comes from people with gambling addictions. These companies are just greedily sucking away money from vulnerable people. These companies really do ruin lives and destroy families.

    I can see that maybe prediction markets might offer at least SOME value to society, so if I were made global dictator tomorrow, I wouldn’t ban them right away, but I’d definitely want to see more studies doing a risk benefit analysis.

    • ___msh___ 13 minutes ago
      Agreed. But as usual you gotta see it in the light of the upcoming elections only 9 days away, meaning they had over 3½ years to do something about the snowballing societal crisis and never lifted a finger. Quite the opposite actually, as Lula's deeply corrupt government actually issued the pending regulatory decree for betting sites and thus effectively cleared them to operate legally in the country
  • rhoads 48 minutes ago
    The same government that approved them now decides to ban them with 2 weeks until the next election. Wtg champs!
  • swingandamiss 1 hour ago
    Betting, porn, onlyfans, should all be banned for a healthy society.
    • alexgieg 57 minutes ago
      Betting causes clear social issues. People go bankrupt and their families with it.

      What issues do porn cause?

    • onemoresoop 1 hour ago
      Social media to some extent too…
      • swingandamiss 58 minutes ago
        Yes. It's destroying the minds of our youth.
    • p-e-w 51 minutes ago
      Also infidels, gays, short skirts, bad books, parties on Sundays, and beer. We can achieve that healthy society if we try hard enough!
    • dofm 42 minutes ago
      Also karaoke.

      It doesn’t harm people. It’s just cringe.

      • PorciiVorbesc 33 minutes ago
        Ban public live streamers too. Also for being cringe and a public nuisance.
        • dofm 21 minutes ago
          And playing boogie woogie on public pianos in airports and railway stations. (Should have gone with this, it’s so much worse than karaoke)
    • PorciiVorbesc 51 minutes ago
      >porn

      China and a lot of islamic and east-asian countries also banned porn and guess what, they're some of the biggest porn watchers in the world because VPNs are a thing and people are hooked for lack of better alternatives because their lives are not amazing and beating their meat to porn is one of the few cheap escapisms they have. If it's legal, at least it's a problem we can openly admit, talk and address through official education and care programs.

      >Betting

      Same as above, it's escapism for desperate people. People gamble more when the economy and their lives are FUBAR, even if it's banned. You're focusing on the effect instead of the cause. We already tried banning vices before with prohibition and it didn't stop shit, it just moved underground. What I think should happen is gambling should not be allowed to be advertised at all both online and offline, and should not be so easily accessible like on your phone or close to where people live. People get hooked because the first hit so so accessible and frictionless nowadays and ads are everywhere. That needs to stop. You wanna gamble, go to a dedicated regulated casino far out of town and you can only gamble limited amounts, not be able to connect your checking account to the pokie machine.

      >onlyfans

      That's the digital version of the world's oldest profession and it survived for thousands of years for a reason. Good luck banning it, I'm sure you can somehow end something that's been prevalent since the dawn of humanity.

      I'm old enough to remember early internet social media sites of late 90s to early 00s, and women there were posting naked pics of themselves online FOR FREE, just to farm compliments and admiration from strange men online, and that was way before Instagram and onlyfans would allow you to monetize your looks. You won't fix the biological attention seeking female behavior and the male attraction to female looks, by banning onlyfans. I would suggest education, a strong father figure present in the family and therapy.

      >should all be banned for a healthy society

      Like I agree with you in principle, that those things are bad and ideally should not exist, but the thing is that all of the above are effects of a decaying morally and financially bankrupt society full of atomized people chasing money and attention to survive and get meaning, that lack opportunities, families, strong communities, strong support networks and a societal fabric tying them together(in the past it used to be religion). They indulge in vices because they have nothing better to live for. Banning those vices won't fix this, they'll just find new hedonistic way to ruin their lives. The true solution is addressing the cause, not the effect.

  • DivingForGold 16 minutes ago
    Good luck enforcing that ...
  • kyleee 48 minutes ago
    Brazil should ban motorcycles; I see the craziest vids from Brazil of people on motorcycles robbing and killing people. Wild place