For Karen, it began with an advertisement and an impressive. This was followed by a 30 reais (€ 5, $ 5.80). Then using a battle against shame, spiraling loan, her mother’s credit card and drug addiction, although calm for now, still anger.
“If I were at a party, I would play gambling. If I had gone to a restaurant or bar, my cell phone would be in my hand. Even while taking a shower, my cell phone would be in my hand. Under the shower, my arm spread out,” 29 -year -old Minus Garais in Brazil told W.
She struggles to get a real handle at her loss, but she knows that it is more than several thousand recycis as she can pay back. “Credit card companies call every day,” Karen said, who asked to withdraw the last name as most of their family is not without reason on the issue.
While gambling addiction is a rapidly serious issue from the United States and Germany to China in countries around the world, stories like Karen are part of a spike gambling in Brazil. The South American country legalized online gambling at the end of 2018, but did not make any attempt to enact a law against its loss or its advertisement by January 2025. Researchers and mental health professionals An increaase has been reported in cases of online betting addictionSpecification among low-oriented Brazilians.
An indicator of gambling grip on the country is that the benefits of Bolsa Familia, the basic income introduced by the federal government to poor citizens, Rupeated R $ 3 billion According to data from Central Bank of Brazil, online gambling last year. The amount is equal to 20% of all the benefits paid by the program.
A 2023 study by the federal university of SAO Paulo found that 6% of Brazilian population states that they bet on online sports betting websites (equal to about 9 million people) and 67% of them 67% are ‘risky gamblers’ – there are no people who are necessary, but this performance is more and more to find as a careless behavior.
Gambling has embedded itself in the national pastime and passion of the country, as well as the same study shows that online sports betting, drive by football, another way of gambling in Brazil, is another way of gambling, which is behind the state lottery operated.
The analysis of the DW data team shows that six of each ten advertising boards surrounding the pitch during the 2024 season of Brazilian Football League showed advertisements for sports betting or other types of gambling – a figure that increased to 7 in 10 during the finale match.
Gambling Advertisement Flood Brazilian football
Five years ago, a wide range of economic sectors appeared in Brazil’s League advertising boards: banks, gas stations, airlines, pharmaceutical companies, retail stores and media network almost always appeared around the pitch. Now all this is about superbat, betano, pixbate, or betanestical. Compared to 2019, the first season after gambling was legalized, the part of pitchseed advertisements characterized by gambling companies is now doubled.
They come from the analysis made by the data DW data team, which used artificial intelligence models to detect, classify and count advertising hoardings displayed in league matches between 2019 and 2024.
The highlight on YouTube was examined using footage from the reel. More information on functioning is available in this public repository.
Data suggests that in the final round of 2024, about 70% of advertisements showed Piccide from betting or gambling company at the 2024 Brazilian championship. This led to the next highest, the top flight of Colombia by 16%, and the top of the top European League discovery as the Italy series A and Premier League in England.
Club gambling depends on sponsorship
Some countries with long -established sports betting markets have started implementing karb on advertising. In 2021, Spain, for example, banned betting and gambling companies from displaying advertisements during prime time broadcast of sports programs, as well as prevention clubs from signing sponsorship contracts.
The English Top Flight Clubs will no longer be prepared to be gambling logo on their shirts from the 2026-27 season, although pitchseed advertisements will remain. According to Brazil’s outlet Globosport, in Brazil, all 20 First Division Clubs currently display at least one gambling sponsor and 90% front and center on their kit.
The Brazilian clubs now rely on the gambling industry, it became clear that a bill was proposed in May 2025 to significantly reduce the search advertisement.
A joint statement signed by more than 50 clubs, in which the FIFA club is currently playing in the World Cup (Palameerus, Flemego, Fluminance and Botfogo), Bill Wild has seen a joint loss of R $ 1.6BN (about $ 310m). “The search limit, if not adjusted, will result in the financial collapse of the entry sports ecosystem – excelly Brazil’s football,” this warned, while Soma accepted the need for further regulation.
‘This is something like a poking inside your head’
The effect of advertisement on both gamblers and non-gamblers at the University of Psychology at the University of Swansi in the UK, Dr. Jamie is evident for Torrent. He told DW that the fact that bookies have spent billions on advertising worldwide, both sports and other fields, proves how effective they consider it.
“The thesis brands are embedded in a game that people care that they invest emotionally, there is a classical conditioning paradigm in the game. People have emotional relations for sports and gambling company, so they also want the thesis emotional relationship with their gambling,” he says. At the same time, he said, the truth of infusers and celebrities is true – a marketing strategy that is not limited to the scope of the game.
Karen said that it definitely works. His betting was focused on ‘Fortune Tiger’, a virtual slot machine game promoted by social media celebrities. Although she did not cross it through football, the major companies that appear on hoardings and kits offer the same game.
“The impresser posted a simple game, and I clicked on it with curiosity. Firstly when I bet on $ 30 without success, and I felt it was stupid”, she said. “But a few months passed, and a friend told me that she was leaving, so I discovered it again. After that, Instagram became hell. I was always seizing the positions, always watching people promoting int. When I started digging a hole myself.
Once the addiction was caught, she could not escape the signals for gambling. “As someone with this addiction, when you watch a video or post a win, it’s something inside your head: ‘What will happen if I put some money? What will happen if I try again?” ,
Public health crisis caused without any inspection
Karen says that when you can get an online assistance group run by psychologist Rafael Avila and her Associao de Protcao e Epio AO Jogdor (Association for the Protection and Support’s gambler), they began to realize their gambling problem.
Avila runs a free service for hundreds of accustomed gamblers. He told DW that outside the major cities, there is almost no help for the people in Karen’s position. When gambling is legalized, they feel a lack of any serious law, which has created a crisis. “The government is not investing the amount they need a problem. They are now trying to solve it, but need happiness six years ago,” Heer said.
The situation changed only in early 2025, when the new law came into force. Currently, regulation, however, focuses on most taxation and proper registration of gambling companies with Brazilian officials. The advertisements remained largely unchanged, but for the fact that companies had now had to display warning warnings like alcohol products, and could not promote gambling as a source of income.
Congress seeks hard regulation
IBJR, the Udyog Body, which represents 75% of gambling operators in Brazil, told DW that recent changes were already affecting. “Since January 2025, since January 2025, regulation marked a new beginning for the region, with clear rules that provide adequate mechanisms to promote responsible gaming,” he said in a statement.
The Congress of Brazil, however, is currently discussing hard regulation on advertisements protested by clubs, including a ban on gambling advertising during the event broadcast. Famous people will be prohibited, discovered as professional athletes and artists.
The proposed law has already been passed through the Senate. To be effective, it must now be approved by the lower house and signed by the President. Its content can still turn into a process-and the recitation approved on the Senate floor was already a water version of the original offer, which called for a complete ban on the Annie of Gambling advertisement.
For Karen, and countless others, it will be very late. Through her work with Avila and other addicts, and her strategy not to keep any money online, she avoids gambling for about a month. But she has been here before and has been released. There is something that started as a little fun at stake, he has taken care of his life.
Edited by: Kalika Mehta
