Thousands of Brazilians will probably suffer withdrawal syndrome this Saturday and the coming days after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed, on Friday, a decree that imposes a total ban on gambling on the Internet, legalized in recent years after decades of veto.
“This is like a cancer: either we remove the tumor, or this tumor will kill us,” proclaimed the veteran president when approving a measure that two-thirds of his compatriots support. The illegalization, approved nine days before the first electoral round, on October 4, Lula intends to confront the serious crisis of debt and addiction that Internet betting has caused and attract the electoral support necessary to break the tie he maintains with Senator Flávio Bolsonaro in the polls.
Lula, 80, started Friday with a mass bath in Recife, then flew 2,500 kilometers to São Paulo to present the veto of online gambling and participated in a dinner event with some of the country's most important businessmen, to whom he promised fiscal stability. This Saturday he stars in several morning events before returning to Brasilia.
The president had been weighing the measure for weeks, with the potential to impact a large part of the population given how widespread gambling is. In recent weeks, Lula had toughened his speech about a phenomenon that, in his words, “has put an online casino in the pockets of the people.” For his Government, the serious damage caused by sports betting reaches the magnitude of an epidemic. “It reminds me of the beginnings of crack in this country, when those affected lost control,” he said.
He recounted some personal tragedies that those affected themselves have told him. He cited the case of a 21-year-old girl, a shop assistant in a small city in the interior of Minas Gerais, who accumulated a debt of 600,000 reais ($115,000) or a small businessman who has a hole of 400,000 dollars.
The leader of the Workers' Party (PT) is immersed in a tough battle for re-election, weighed down by the enormous rejection he is garnering in the polls. Half of the electorate has an unfavorable opinion of their Government, according to polls. The president has not been able to mitigate this discontent by the hour, which responds largely to the high cost of living.
The president's team hopes that this veto will attract the support of crucial groups, such as the poorest evangelical women, who often dislike the left that Lula represents, presented by their religious leaders as a threat to the family. Other measures such as increasing the monthly Bolsa Familia anti-poverty payment by 15% or the tax exemption for lower middle class families have not had the effects anticipated by Lula's campaign team.
The veto on online casinos has opened a bitter dispute between Lula and Bolsonaro over whose responsibility it is that a sector like betting has become a major economic and public health problem. Betting was legalized in 2018, under the Temer government, Bolsonaro Sr. did not lift a finger to regulate the sector, which, according to Lula's team, created a “lawless land.” During the pandemic, hundreds of companies sprung up without any restrictions to prevent underage gambling or money laundering, as stressed by the Minister of Finance, Dario Durigan, together with Lula. It was his Government that regulated the market and began to collect taxes from companies.
The far-right candidate accused his leftist rival of having “a populist, hypocritical and electoral attitude” by banning the game and even called him “pai do Tigrinho”, that is, the father of one of the most popular games.
Lula and his ministers recalled that online gambling dynamites household budgets and destroys families. Around 80% of Brazilian families owe money, whether to a bank, a supply company, or a relative. The Government has progressively become aware that sports betting, in addition to being a good source of tax collection, has aggravated the debt problems of families and has worsened the mental health of the population.
