The dizzying growth of online betting and its harmful effects on a segment of the population is not a Brazilian problem. Many countries are facing a similar situation and are debating strict rules, and Brazil has realized the harm that online sports betting – betting – can cause, especially for young people: addiction, debt, family problems and less money for education and food. Some side effects.
With 15 major sponsors of 20 first division soccer teams, betting is ubiquitous in Brazilians' favorite sport and accessible from their cell phones, from home. Legalized from 2018, when the government announced its regulation in September, the country was already behind the US and the UK in sector revenue, according to analytics firm ComScore.
But the dizzying growth of race and its harmful effects on a segment of the population is not a Brazilian problem. Other countries are recording a similar phenomenon, at different speeds, debating and adopting stricter rules. Recent research has shed more light on its impact on the financial and mental health of the population.
America is the biggest market
As in Brazil, betting in the United States was legalized in 2018 – but instead of a legislative change approved by Congress, the center of change in the case of the Americans was the decision of the Supreme Court: a majority of ministers decided that a standard 1992 federal law prohibiting sports betting was beyond the powers of the federal government, and guaranteed the states the right to regulate the issue.
Today, betting is legal in 38 of the 50 states in the country. Goldman Sachs estimates that in October 2023 alone, Americans will spend more than $1 billion on online sports betting – and the industry is projected to continue growing until it reaches $45 billion annually.
Besides banks, betting has also attracted the attention of researchers looking at its effects on Americans' finances. A study by Brett Hollenbeck of the University of California, Los Angeles and Poet Larson and David Proserbio of the University of Southern California, published in pre-print in August and not yet peer-reviewed, found that in states that legalized betting, residents' financial health worsened compared to states where they still banned it.
To reach this conclusion, the researchers consulted an anonymous financial database of about 7 million Americans with information from 2004 to the present day, and compared the evolution of variables such as financial health, excess debt and access to credit. This method includes a check that rejects the hypothesis that legalized betting is done so because of budgetary problems, which may also affect the financial health of citizens.
Research has found a statistically significant difference in worse credit scores, bankruptcy rates, and debt collections in states that have legalized gambling compared to others. The results also show that where online betting is legalized, it worsens among young people living in poorer municipalities.
Noting the evolution of the phenomenon, Federal Vice President Paul Donko and Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, introduced a bill in September to establish minimum standards for racing operations at the federal level. Proposed measures include banning college athletes from sponsoring and using credit cards to place bets.
Germany debates advertising restrictions
In Germany, the legalization of online sports betting happened at the end of 2020 – and it's taking off. In 2022, they already recorded 1.4 billion euros in discounted revenue for prize money – second only to traditional gaming machines in gastronomic establishments and salons (4.8 billion euros) and the lottery (4.1 billion euros).
The data is contained in the Gambling Atlas 2023 report, prepared by researchers from the Interdisciplinary Research Institute for Addiction and Drugs (ISD) in Hamburg, the German Center for Addiction Problems (DHS) in Hamm, and the University of Bremen. Health.
Research defines online sports betting as “the easiest form of gambling” and highlights its rapid growth. Meanwhile, the country is debating whether to ban betting ads. In the 2022/2023 season, 17 of the 18 Bundesliga football teams received sponsorship from companies in the sector, according to the report.
According to a poll conducted in December 2021, representatives of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Green Party supported the advertising ban, and was supported by more than 70% of Germans. The country currently has relatively liberal legislation. The theme, and allowing teams to sponsor races and broadcast advertisements on billboards, the Internet and television, is prohibited, for example, in Belgium and Italy.
A survey found that in 2021, 8% of men living in Germany will bet on sports, compared to only 2% of women. Men between the ages of 21 and 35 and those with immigrant backgrounds are most affected by addiction. According to the report, 29.7% of live sports bettors are somewhat addicted, while 6.1% are severely addicted.
Taking into account all forms of legalized gambling, the government raised €5.2 billion from the activity in 2021 – twice as much as it collected from the sale of alcoholic beverages. The report also estimates that 4.6 million adults in Germany are addicted or at risk of becoming addicted to gaming. Addicts – 1.3 million people – spend an average of R$800 per month on betting, and those at risk of addiction, R$3.3 million, spend an average of R$206 per month.
The sector's regulation includes a centralized database that registers people who are banned from betting online – the bettor, his family or companies can make requests for registration. By the end of 2023, more than 200 thousand people will be registered in this database, the majority on the initiative of the bettor, according to Die Zeit newspaper.
In Argentina, fashion among the youth
Neighboring Brazil faces a similar problem. In Argentina, at least 17 provinces have laws allowing online betting as of December 2018, including Buenos Aires, according to the Chequeado website.
An online survey of 7,810 teenagers and young adults aged 15 to 29 from May to July this year by a network of universities found that 22% of them had already bet online, and 16% were continuing to do so. .
Of those who already bet or have placed bets, 58.7% said they spend less than one hour a day actively, and 12.7% of them bet more than four hours a day online. In the same universe, 27.5% said they had already felt nervous or stressed because they couldn't bet online, and 25% had spent money on betting for another purpose.
The average monthly expenditure was equal to R$120 among young men and women who bet or bet, and R$61 among women.
The study also received over 4,000 statements from interviewees. Some mentioned being bullied by colleagues for not having the “courage” to bet online, stealing resources from family members and losing friends to bet, or being beaten at school because of demands to buy money to support betting. Among bettors, there are reports of frustration, bad mood and rage associated with the action.
Adopting stricter restrictions on access to betting sites was supported by 41.8% of participants, and 71.7% would support a prevention campaign aimed at young people.
Professor Martin Romeo, director of the research, told La Nazion newspaper that teenagers and young adults living in households just above the poverty line bet on average three times more than the general average of the sample. Their hypothesis is that they try to compensate for insufficient income from work by gambling. “They make bets because they don't do anything,” he says.
On October 8, a police operation in Buenos Aires dismantled an organization involved in illegal online betting, and blocked more than 1,800 unauthorized betting sites.
Restrictions in other countries
Research led by Repairer Etuk at the University of Nevada (USA), published in September 2022 in the journal Behavioral Addiction, reviewed 65 scientific articles on sports betting in 12 countries and identified that it is associated with high levels of problematic behaviors.
Among the countries evaluated, China and South Korea have adopted stricter restrictions against betting in recent years. In China, the country experienced a rapid growth in online betting between 2005 and 2014, until they were banned in 2015 – today, only certain types of sports lotteries are allowed, controlled by the government. In South Korea, only one company has a sports betting license.
In the advertising sector, in August 2021, Spain restricted the broadcast time of advertisements about sports betting to 1 am to 5 am, and banned the sponsorship of teams and matches in the country – in the first division, before the veto, 19 out of 20 clubs received sponsorship from betting sites. In the United Kingdom, betting companies will be banned from being the main sponsors of Premier League clubs from the 2026/2027 season.
Low-income youth are the most affected
Many studies already show that young people and people with low incomes are more vulnerable to the adverse effects of gambling on their financial health. Psychiatrist Nicole Resende, co-director of the Integrated Outpatient Program for Impulsive Disorders at USP's (Pro-Amity) Institute of Psychiatry, tells DW that this happens due to a number of factors.
“It's like a puzzle. People who are emotionally vulnerable, have a history of trauma or mental health problems, may use gambling as a way to gain pleasure. “If there is already an impairment in substance use, the more likely the behavior will develop compulsively,” he says.
He points out that access to betting, especially among young people, has been widely promoted through social networks with the idea that “it is an opportunity to increase income, a quick solution to financial problems”. In this situation, needy youth are more exposed without parental supervision or a support network.
“Young people with less education may have hope of solving their lives. “Already more stable, with some financial security, more skilled, unlike people who are working or going to college,” he says.
The availability of betting on mobile improves addictive potential: “The more accessible and normalized a behavior is in a culture, the more comfortable a person is to initiate and engage. And, most of the time, nobody checks anything. A person does it there on his cell phone.”
