Latin America Focus
BRAZIL’S GAMBLING BOOM THREATENED BY POLICY PARALYSIS
While a number of important events have unfolded in the online gambling space over the past year, it's difficult not to wonder whether any significant progress has truly been made. Debate in congress has bordered on the farcical while a deeply disturbing picture of illegal gambling has slowly begun to emerge.
Much of the focus has been on the parliamentary inquiry
commission (CPI) on betting formed at the end of last year to investigate the impact of online gambling on Brazilian families' finances, potential connections to money laundering by criminal organisations, and the role of digital influencers in promoting these activities. A report in Piauí magazine, released in January of this year,
disclosed the details of the contract between Virgínia Fonseca, who has more than 53 million followers on Instagram, and her dealings with online betting companies. Star struck members of the committee jumped at the opportunity to get their photo taken with the influencer who had been called to testify by the CPI rapporteur, Senator Soraya Tronicke. Events took a decidedly cringeworthy turn when Senator Cleitinho
Azevedo had to issue an apology to the house plenary after asking Fonseca to send a message to his wife and daughter while she had
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been testifying in the senate. Before then the senator also revealed that he was a consumer of the influencer’s products and made an appeal for her to stop promoting betting sites. “I want to talk to you, if it touches your heart, as a Christian: you don’t need this anymore. Stop this kind of propaganda. Promote your pre-workouts. In fact, I took your pre-workout today. Wonderful — he said.” His request and the surrounding circumstances sparked social media criticism and memes.
While lawmakers lavished praise on the influencer in a shocking
move the same lawmakers rounded on a businessman called before the committee and had him arrested on the spot. No wonder the senate president Davi Alcolumbre's patience began to run out. Meeting with members of the CPI he reportedly rejected extending the deadline for the work. According to one senator present at the meeting he slammed his fist on the table and berated the members for calling the wrong people to testify and likened it to a “circus.”
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