Lula Bans Online Betting in Brazil as Election Race Tightens
Brazil Bans Online Betting
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed an executive order banning online betting, effective immediately but requiring congressional approval within 120 days. The move comes as polls show a tight race with Senator Flavio Bolsonaro ahead of the October 4 vote. Lula also unveiled a debt relief program to buy and restructure household debt, spending 15 billion reais to acquire up to 150 billion reais of delinquent loans at discounts of at least 90%.
We are facing a public health issue involving online betting. It is a serious problem.
- nightsd01
Honestly this is a good thing, and we should ban online sports and casino betting in the US too. They add absolutely zero value to society, they just cause harm.
Studies have shown that most of the profit from online sports gambling for example comes from people with gambling addictions. These companies are just greedily sucking away money from vulnerable people. These companies really do ruin lives and destroy families.
I can see that maybe prediction markets might offer at least SOME value to society, so if I were made global dictator tomorrow, I wouldn’t ban them right away, but I’d definitely want to see more studies doing a risk benefit analysis.
- kikoreis
Wow, that is one badass move! Possibly the last time something like this can be attempted before bet money is so ingrained into power it's a non starter.
I was just starting to get bored going into October. It's going to be enlightening to see society now grind it out to decide whether it really wants to get rid of the industry.
- HyperL0gi
Recipe for winning: introduce a problem, watch society get destroyed by it while you profit from it, then when a big portion of the poor population has too much debt because of the problem you legalized, ban it and offer a solution a couple of months before the election. Save the people, get elected. Win win
- rhoads
The same government that approved them now decides to ban them with 2 weeks until the next election. Wtg champs!
- shmeeed
I'll go get some popcorn for this thread.