LETTER FROM RIO DE JANEIRO
In 2016, Carlos (name changed), a 32-year-old sports coach from Belo Horizonte (Minas Gerais), in the southeast of Brazil, moved to Rio de Janeiro, a city renowned for its fitness culture. Far from his loved ones, he then started sports betting on the British platform Sportingbet. He quickly found himself unable to do without it. “I faked a stomach ache to spend hours in the bathroom playing quietly”This football fan confesses during a meeting organised by the association Gamblers Anonymous (JA), a support network for video game addicts, in Flamengo, a wealthy neighbourhood in Rio de Janeiro.
In Brazil, the gambling and sports betting market is booming. Between 2020 and 2023, the number of companies in the sector increased from 51 to 308, according to the firm PwC. In 2023, they generated 120 billion reais (around 19.4 billion euros) in revenue. And with good reason: in the absence of regulation, platforms, often foreign, enjoy almost complete freedom to massively promote their services on television and social media, often relying on local celebrities, such as footballer Neymar. And many Brazilians are falling into the trap: according to a survey by the Locomotiva Institute, published in August, 25 million new people bet online during the first seven months of 2024, an average of 3.5 million new bettors per month. In total, 52 million people have already participated in this activity in this country of 215.3 million inhabitants.
“More and more people who have become addicted ask us” One of the JA members is concerned. According to him, “250 new people registered” in the twelve groups of the organization present in Rio de Janeiro, between the end of the pandemic, in 2020, and mid-2023.
“I even had to borrow money from friends”
In Flamengo, the JA hall, located behind a church, is full. Besides Carlos, about thirty people listen attentively, sitting on school chairs, as compulsive gamblers share their testimony. Many of them say they have been ruined by their addiction. According to Banco Itaú, Brazilians lost R$23.9 billion of the R$68.2 billion spent on online gambling between June 2023 and June 2024. This, while 40% of gamblers earn less than R$5,200 (€848) per month, according to PwC. Result: 86% of them are in debt and 64% are on the insolvency lists of Serasa, the organisation that manages people’s credit histories. “I even had to borrow money from friends and family who earn less than me. [pour financer mes paris] »Carlos is confident. When he joined the JA in July 2022, his debt was R$80,000.
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