Brazil committed to banning betting for those who get social welfare
Regis Dudena, leader of the Brazilian online gambling regulator Secretariat of Prizes and Bets, said gamblers who benefit from social welfare will be banned from gambling.
During an interview with Estadão, Dudena reaffirmed a Supreme Federal Court ruling that supported an emergency measure to ban gambling among those accepting social welfare. An estimated 21 million people use the Bolsa Familia program and many others under the Continuous Benefit Payment (BPC) program.
The ban has not been formally introduced, as it needs a legal assessment before the Secretariat of Prizes can publish official guidelines and rules.
“We are preparing a measure to comply with the decision in the way we think is possible, which is to prohibit beneficiaries, specifically of Bolsa Família and BPC,” Dudena told Estadão. “But this is still in the final stages of alignment, especially legal, to see if it complies with the Supreme Court’s decision.”
The rules became a sharp focus when the Central Bank of Brazil revealed that an estimated 20% of money awarded through the Bolsa Familia system was spent on igaming. Considering estimates that the Bolsa Familia covers 1.5% of Brazil’s GDP, 0.3% of the country’s GDP is spent on online gambling.
This was before regulated online gambling launched in Brazil on 1 January, with several gambling companies, such as Light & Wonder, Games Global and Stake, going live.
