Bets: Lewandowski announces action against sports betting advertising aimed at children and teenagers
The Minister of Justice and Public Security, Ricardo Lewandowski, said that the ministry is acting to combat advertising related to children and adolescents.
The statement was made this Friday (4) during the inauguration ceremony of the new superintendent of the Federal Police (PF), José Roberto Peres.
“The Consumer Protection Secretariat (Senacom) is notifying providers so that there are no betting advertisements aimed at children and adolescents and that influencers can also present this type of activity, because the Child and Adolescent Statute prohibits this”, he stated Lewandowski.
A CNN had access to a Senacom order in which a series of actions are reported.
In one of them, Senacon notifies the social network Instagram to provide information about possible violations related to advertising made by betting companies aimed at children and teenagers.
The notification was motivated by a complaint from the Alana Institute, an institution that works in defense of children’s rights, especially with regard to protection against abuses related to consumption, media and advertising.
According to the complaint, some profiles on the platform that advertised betting were even managed by children and teenagers, which is prohibited.
The rules should also apply to digital influencers, according to minister Ricardo Lewandowski.
Two market monitoring notifications were also made, driven by complaints, in relation to advertising in football stadiums and the sale of telephone devices with pre-installed gambling applications.
“As Nísia (Trindade, Minister of Health) said, it is an activity that brings physical dependence and is characterized as a disease and the WHO (World Health Organization), in the catalog of diseases, is considering including this addition to electronic games” , added Lewandowski.
Investigations
The minister also informed that the Federal Police are already investigating possible criminal practices on the part of online betting houses, known as bets.
“The PF is acting, as always, in the fight against money laundering, currency evasion, infiltration by criminal organizations in companies that operate underground”, stressed the minister.
On the afternoon of this Thursday (3), a meeting took place at Palácio do Planalto with the presence of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and ministers Fernando Haddad (Finance) and Rui Costa (Casa Civil) on the need for regulation of the betting market.
According to news anchor Tainá Falcão, the president appealed to the government to act diligently to protect the population from what he considers to be a type of betting “pandemic”. https://www.cnnbrasil.com.br/blogs/taina-falcao/politica/em-reuniao-com-lula-rui-costa-e-haddad-divergem-sobre-futuro-das-bets/
Participants at the meeting told CNN that the Minister of the Civil House, Rui Costa, raised doubts about the effect of bets on public accounts. For Costa, the gains from revenue would fall short of the expenses that the government would need to cover for damages to the health of dependents.
Going against Rui Costa, Fernando Haddad, Minister of Finance, presented arguments for the government to continue with the regulation and suggested that the ministerial group wait for the effects of the recently announced measures, such as the banning of two thousand irregular betting sites in the country.
The Minister of Health, Nísia Trindade, requested that bets receive the same treatment given to products harmful to health, such as cigarettes and alcohol.
