The survey, conducted between October 15th and 18th by Cruz Consulting, exclusively with beneficiaries of social programs, outlined a profile of gamblers: the majority (70%) are men, and the main age group (40.8%) is 25 to 34 years old.
For the ANJL, the data raises a red flag. The ban will strengthen the illegal gaming industry, which already represents almost 60% of the country's betting market.
"Banning doesn't solve anything. It's ineffective, and it encourages the growth of clandestine websites, which are currently the biggest problem the federal government needs to address. There are 80 companies regulated by the Ministry of Finance that operate transparently and regulated, and thousands more that operate without authorization and freely. The most effective path is education and the use of technological tools that guarantee Responsible Gaming," states ANJL president Plínio Lemos Jorge.
The survey also showed that the majority of respondents (73.4%) support government regulation of the sector. The data release comes a month after the ANJL sent a Technical Note to the Ministry of Finance's Secretariat of Prizes and Betting (SPA), warning of concerns about the migration of bettors with benefits to the illegal market.
In the document, the entity noted that the Supreme Federal Court's decision, in ADIs 7721 and 7723, prohibited only the use of social benefit funds for betting, not the act of betting with funds from other sources. For the ANJL, the automatic blocking of CPFs of Bolsa Família and BPC beneficiaries will push bettors into the illegal market, as the survey showed.
Source: GMB
