Zona de Azar Brazil – Brazil: Spending on Gambling by Social Program Beneficiaries

Brazil.- October 10, 2024 www.zonadeazar.com The National Association of Games and Lotteries (ANJL), representing various gaming and betting platforms in Brazil, recently issued a statement questioning the Central Bank’s (BC) study on the spending of Bolsa Família beneficiaries on online gaming and betting.

According to the association, the estimated spending by beneficiaries is around 450 million reais per month, which is approximately six times lower than the 3 billion reais reported by the BC last week.

“Contrary to what the Central Bank’s statement implies, Bolsa Família beneficiaries do not spend a significant portion of their income transfer on online betting,” said the ANJL.

Following the publication of the preliminary study, there was a strong response from the federal government and much of Congress.

President Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva, in a ministerial meeting held last Thursday (October 3), stated that the situation should be treated as a “dependency issue.”

The ANJL also pointed out a discrepancy of around 8 billion reais in the survey conducted by the Central Bank. According to the document presented, in August alone, 56 companies received 20.8 billion reais in transfers.

As the association argued, there is a possibility that the Central Bank calculated the figures twice, inflating the total volume transacted on the platform as exclusive spending by individuals. “Since, on average, 85 percent of the amount is returned to bettors, this alone would result in an error of more than 8 billion reais in the BC’s calculation,” stated the ANJL.

Additionally, the association highlighted that another concerning issue with the study is that the profile of Bolsa Família beneficiaries does not match that of the typical Brazilian gambler. The study points to the participation of 5 million beneficiaries, 3.5 million of whom are heads of households. According to government data, about 80 percent of them are women, which does not align with the predominantly male audience of betting sites.

ANJL claims that the technical note’s methodology was not disclosed

The organization representing gaming operators sent a letter questioning the methodology of the technical note to the Central Bank but received no response.

“The microdata supporting these claims have not yet been made public, so it is impossible to conduct the necessary validations to replicate the BC study’s conclusions,” they said.

And they continued in the official statement: “It is a very serious and unprecedented situation in similar cases. For the Central Bank to publish a study and block access to its data is, to say the least, inconsistent, if not illegal and contrary to the most basic legal principles, including transparency, broad defense, and contradiction.”

In conclusion, they demanded that “in any case, the importance of the Central Bank disclosing the data and information on which its technical note is based is reiterated. After all, as demonstrated, there are several indications that there may have been an error in the data collection or in defining the premises adopted in the study.”

Edited by: @_fonta www.zonadeazar.com