In less than 24 hours, Gusttavo Lima, one of Brazil’s most famous and wealthy sertanejo singers, performed at a rodeo in the interior of São Paulo, watched Akon’s performance at the Rock in Rio festival, flew to Miami — and became the target of an arrest warrant on suspicion of money laundering.
The arrest warrant was revoked by Judge Eduardo Guilliod Maranhão of the Pernambuco Court of Justice, arguing that “the justifications used to decree preventive detention and to impose other precautionary measures are mere inappropriate presumptions and generic considerations.”
However, the attempt to detain the sertanejo star drew attention to a sudden increase in unregulated online gambling, which has become a growing headache and a public health issue for Brazil.
According to a report by The Guardian, online gambling companies have grown exponentially since the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil, many linked to international companies and local criminal groups.
The newspaper highlights that new rules to regulate online gambling will come into effect on January 1, but experts warn that the regulations will be insufficient to combat what many are calling an “epidemic” of online gambling addiction in Brazil.
A series of recent studies has exposed the scale of the problem: in addition to going into debt, more Brazilians are using money they would spend on entertainment or even food to gamble online, and an increasing number are dropping out of university for the same reason, according to the publication.
The crisis has already been felt at Gamblers Anonymous, a recovery program for people addicted to gambling. In just the last 12 months, groups have been formed in over seven cities, including the first in the Amazon.
The Guardian notes that online gambling was legalized at the end of Michel Temer’s government in 2018, but no regulations were implemented during Jair Bolsonaro’s four-year term.
The Lula government approved regulations at the end of 2023, giving companies a year to comply. More than 100 companies have registered to pay a five-year licensing fee of R$ 30 million.
The newspaper emphasizes that the regulation is excessively focused on fiscal issues but does not address the problem of addiction, which is a public health matter.
The Ministry of Finance, which oversees the gambling market, reported that public education campaigns will be launched to alert the public about the impact that gambling can have on health and personal finances.
Source: The Guardian