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“Are we remaining passive while society drowns in debt? Are we remaining passive while society is driven to madness – because this is an illness? People lose their minds; they contemplate suicide or abandoning their homes. So, we are going to take serious action.”
During the livestream, the president stated that he had spoken with a woman who said her 26-year-old son had taken his own life because of online betting. He also mentioned hearing from a bettor who had racked up BRL2 million ($388,410) in debt in just three months of wagering.
Lula said he intends to discuss the matter with his team and analyse potential measures to consider the social impact of online betting.
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The report singled out several marketing tactics which had been flagged as particuarly concerning.
The first was direct marketing (emails, texts, push notifications). Citing randomised studies, the committee noted that limiting direct marketing resulted in reduced betting and fewer short-term harms.
Referencing an Australian study on direct marketing and its link to gambling harms, Dr Philip Newall, senior lecturer at the University of Bristol noted that “causality was established by getting a random subset of participants to opt-out of receiving direct marketing offers”.
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The three markets have reached the same point by different routes. Morocco has an incumbent defending its exclusivity through the courts, so far without success.
Tunisia has competing bills to prohibit or regulate online betting, neither of which has advanced. Egypt has relied on enforcement measures.
In all three, private online betting has no licensing route. Governments are tackling offshore demand through blocking, prohibition and criminal enforcement.
