Prínio Lemos Jorge, the chairman of the Brazilian National Association of Gambling and Lotteries, recently criticized the government's new Novo Desenrola Brasil debt restructuring plan in an interview. He openly criticized the provision that prohibits beneficiaries of the debt plan from participating in gambling, arguing that it will backfire and push indebted gamblers who are excluded from licensed platforms directly into the illegal market. He sees the plan, which aims to help indebted families renegotiate their debts and restore financial balance, as containing a loophole that will exacerbate rather than alleviate the problem—a gambler already betting on licensed sites will not stop gambling because of the ban, and will ultimately flow to thousands of illegal platforms, continuing to maintain the same or even worse debt status. He also pointed out that the latest government data shows that about 82.8 million people in Brazil were in debt in March, accounting for 49% of the total population, while the federal gambling management system recorded nearly 10 million people betting on licensed sites in the same month, assuming that half of them are also in the debt group, that is only 5 million people, only accounting for 6% of the total indebted population.
Household total consumption accounts for less than half a percent
Lemos Jorge pushed the core logic of this debate to the forefront with two sets of key comparative data. A survey by Serasa Experian shows that 47% of debt is related to bank credit, 21% involves utility bills such as water and electricity, and another 11% points to the service industry, totaling more than 80% of financial arrears unrelated to gambling. He further cited research data indicating that gambling expenditures account for only 0.46% of total Brazilian household expenditures, which cannot form a substantial connection with debt problems. The real culprit is the interest snowball that keeps growing due to high credit costs and globally rare high interest rates—a person with 10,000 reais in credit card debt and 5,000 reais in overdraft limits, the root of the problem is not the average monthly 50 reais of gambling leisure spending.
39,000 illegal platforms were shut down, but could revive in a few hours
When asked about the biggest challenges currently facing regulation, Lemos Jorge pointed to the continuous mutation ability of illegal platforms. As of April this year, the Brazilian National Telecommunications Agency and the Secretariat of Prizes and Gambling have successfully blocked about 39,000 illegal gambling websites, but he added a key footnote—some platforms only take a few hours to switch to a new domain and go online again after being shut down. This cat-and-mouse game is one of his core arguments against the ban: when legal licensed platforms are forced to cut off contact with specific users, those illegal sites that are not bound by any anti-money laundering, responsible gambling, and consumer protection rules are rapidly filling the market gap.
In addition, he believes that after a four-year regulatory vacuum, the Brazilian gambling industry has been branded with a negative impression in public opinion by some illegal behaviors that took advantage of this. He also mentioned an invisible struggle involving multiple stakeholders behind the scenes—part of which comes from traditional industry sectors that have lost market share in the advertising market due to the rise of the gambling industry, and the media's selective reporting continues to amplify those extreme cases of huge losses on illegal platforms, but rarely investigates whether these behaviors occur on legal or illegal operators.
Lula's attitude change and the industry data game
Recently, Brazilian President Lula unexpectedly moderated his previous fierce attacks on gambling companies during the speech signing the temporary decree of the debt restructuring plan, no longer characterizing gambling as the main culprit destroying family finances as before. Lemos Jorge attributed this to the intense dialogue between the industry association and departments such as the US Treasury and the Presidential Office in recent weeks based on multi-party verified data—data from payment platforms and consulting companies consistently show that gambling spending only accounts for a tiny budget share of Brazilians.
He further criticized a recent market report released by the Brazilian National Business Confederation, which claimed that gambling companies withdrew nearly 144 billion reais from the market. He directly criticized this figure as completely out of touch with market reality and meaningless. Regarding the upcoming election cycle, he clearly expects the industry to continue to be used as a scapegoat for all social problems, but he emphasized that ANJL's duty is to counterattack positively—through continuous media communication, social media dissemination, and forum speeches, to convey the basic facts of the industry to the public: Today's Brazilian operation is one of the strictest gambling regulatory frameworks in the world, its main goal is to protect players and combat the illegal market, destroying a regulated industry that has been established through difficult legislation, is equivalent to pushing all Brazilians directly to those black platforms that have no commitment to players' mental health and financial safety.
PASA official website continues to track the latest dynamics of Brazilian gambling market regulation and industry policy game, noting that ANJL's strategy in the debt restructuring plan controversy is to counter policy narratives with quantitative data, providing a valuable game scene on how the gambling industry seeks survival space in the complex game with the government and public opinion.
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This article is from "PASA-Global iGaming Leaders" gambling industry news channel: https://t.me/pasa_news
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