Governor's call
São Paulo Governor Tarcísio de Freitas wants online sports betting closed down in Brazil and a national programme created to treat gambling addiction. Speaking at a debate held by SindHosp, the São Paulo hospital union, he put the problem in public health terms and said the programme should be 'robust, accessible, and digitized'.
'Either Brazil ends betting, or betting ends Brazil. We have to understand: this is a health problem,' he said. He compared the effort to anti-tobacco campaigns: 'We managed to get people off tobacco. Can we get them off drugs? The challenges are the same now. Maybe even bigger.'
The figures
Freitas is running for re-election, and his line fits a wider move: several prominent Brazilian politicians have hardened their rhetoric on betting. Analysts tie that to courting the conservative electorate.
He put the share of Brazilian income going on bets at 20%. Finance Ministry data differ. Legal platforms hold 31 million registered CPF tax numbers, about 18% of the adult population, and player losses in 2025 came to R$ 36.8 billion, or 0.5% of the country's household budget. The gap between the governor's claim and the official statistics is fortyfold.
