Datafolha: Bets attract young people and reach 15% of the population – 01/13/2024 – Sports

Datafolha research reveals that 15% of Brazilians say they bet or have already placed online sports bets, known as bets. Online betting is widespread across the country, but the phenomenon is greater among young people and men.

Almost a third (30%) of Brazilians aged 16 to 24 say they have already bet. It is double the average of 15% for the entire country — 7% say they have bet, but no longer bet, and 8%, who continue to bet.

Researchers, doctors, educators and even members of support groups for game addicts reported to Sheet spread among young people and even teenagers, with recurrence of problematic cases. This occurs despite the legal prohibition for children under 18 years of age.

This is the first report in the Bets no Brasil series, which provides an X-ray of online betting in the country.

The average monthly expenditure among all people who bet is R$263 — equivalent to 20% of the 2023 minimum wage. Three in ten bettors say they spend more than R$100 per month, shows Datafolha.

This has been a male activity: 21% report having gambled. Among women, this rate is 9%.

Half of gamblers also say they lost more money than they won.

The research was carried out on December 5, 2023, with 2,004 face-to-face interviews in 135 municipalities, with people aged 16 and over from all regions of the country. The margin of error is two percentage points up or down.

The offer of sports betting sites has been available in Brazil since 2018, after a law approved by the Michel Temer (MDB) government. From then on, betting advertisements began to dominate the free-to-air TV schedule, especially during football games. Social networks were flooded with advertisements, made viral by the actions of famous influencers.

The government of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) had four years to regulate the market, but did not do so. Thus, the number of betting houses aimed at the Brazilian public exploded without clear rules of operation and supervision — in 2023, an investigation into a scheme of combining results in football games, including Series A, to unduly profit from bets became public. .

The Lula (PT) government started working on regulations last year. A new law has already been approved to define the taxation and operation of companies, which must also be accredited to operate in Brazil — currently, those who offer online betting in the country are based abroad.

Full regulation should be finalized in the first half of this year. The legislation deals with so-called fixed odds games, in which it is known how much you can win with a bet (based on the results of a football game, for example).

During the processing of the sports betting bill in the Chamber, deputies included in this category, in addition to sports betting, also online games, which include casinos and other games of chance in a virtual environment. It is estimated that up to 80% of the sector’s turnover comes from this type of activity.

Critics fear that this will facilitate the even greater spread of sites that offer games that work without transparency, with promises of exorbitant prizes or fraudulent algorithms. There are already criminal investigations into cases of this type — it should be up to the government to determine which types can operate.

It was from an announcement on social media that student Fábio [nome fictício], 17, arrived at a betting site. A resident of the rural area of ​​the Federal District, he had no difficulty registering, even though he was a minor.

“I saw a link on Instagram and was redirected to the website. There I had to create an account, I put my email, password and said I was 18 years old. I just checked a box”, said the student.

The site generated a Pix key and made the transfers. First it was R$20, which he lost. Then another R$20, which also went away quickly.

Fábio says that many friends bet. “I played out of curiosity. I saw the advertising, people commenting, and I said: ‘Why not try?'”, he said. “As I hadn’t made any money, I decided not to spend any more.”

Professor Mateus Castello Branco has been teaching for five years at Elefante Branco, the largest public high school in Brasília. He says he noticed a fever among the students.

“There are groups, mainly boys, almost compulsively involved with sports betting apps or games that promise quick wins,” he says. “They believe they will really get rich, sometimes resisting putting down their cell phones to pay attention in class.”

A Sheet questioned the Education departments of all states, which concentrate high school enrollments. None said they had reports of serious problems with betting among students, nor were there any specific actions related to the topic.

Doctor Daniel Spritzer, researcher at UFRGS (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul), says that there is a great convergence between the gaming and betting industries. He is coordinator of the Study Group on Technological Additions, in Rio Grande do Sul.

“This is really bringing children and young people closer to gambling, which is prohibited for minors, and is making it increasingly become something natural”, he says. “And as access increases, use increases and problematic use increases.”

According to Spritzer, scientific literature shows that the prevalence of gaming addiction among teenagers is between 2% and 4%, double what is seen among older people. “Young people are more vulnerable because, at this stage of development, it is more difficult to think about the long-term consequences when one of the aspects involved is more pleasurable.”

The Pathological Gambling Outpatient Program at the USP Institute of Psychiatry has received an increasingly younger audience seeking treatment.

“We haven’t tabulated it yet, but the impression is that the sample is becoming more male, now there is a predominance of online betting, especially via cell phones, with parity in terms of prevalence between sports betting and online casinos”, says the doctor and professor at USP Hermano Tavares.

Members of the São Paulo Gamblers Anonymous support group also report greater demand for young people. Some go with their parents, as minors are not accepted.

It takes a while for people to understand that they suffer from a compulsion, says one of the group’s members, who over 11 years of addiction says he lost R$1 million in various games of chance. But, looking back, he says, the beginning of it all was in his adolescence, at 14 years old.

Another bettor who shares support with Gamblers Anonymous says that the compulsion that, in adult life, also caused him to waste time and R$700,000, also began in his adolescence. He started at the age of 15, with cards and slot machines, but has made many recent bets online. He says he is frightened by the ubiquity of betting advertising.

In Brazil, gambling and physical casinos have been prohibited since 1946. Current law, however, allows games on an online platform.

Despite the issue moving towards full legalization, the Datafolha survey shows that 55% of the population says they are against it. The greatest rejection is among women (61%), who also play less.

The new legislation already includes items related to responsible gaming, concerns about advertising to minors and allocation of money to the SUS (Unified Health System) for measures related to social harm caused by gaming.

“The issue of gambling addiction is a priority for the government. We have been working with the Ministry of Health since the second half of last year”, says José Francisco Cimino Manssur, special advisor to the Ministry of Finance. “We will establish a working group with Health to not only create systems together but also issue an ordinance that will be more specific in the care of people who have a gambling disorder.”

When questioned, the Ministry of Health says that the expansion and qualification of mental health services is a priority.

For Hermano Tavares, from USP, awareness campaigns and specific regulations are necessary, such as blocking structural characteristics of websites that can encourage lack of control — such as results that “hit the goalposts” and reinforce the illusion of control over random results.

“There are several measures that can and should be taken under penalty of having a new epidemic of a psychiatric disorder,” says Tavares.

A Sheet looked for associations that represent betting houses.

The president of the Brazilian Institute of Responsible Gaming, Andre Gelfi, stated that he believes that, with regulation of the activity, the competitive context should change.

“Operators will have rules to comply with, which should curb current commercial dynamics, where unfortunately cases without any control are recurring. With the regulation, advertising will follow Conar rules [Conselho Nacional Brasileiro de Autorregulamentação Publicitária] and the sector itself must help the authorities to monitor misdeeds.”