Brazil's Lula bans online gambling ahead of presidential election
Lula, who is currently in a tight presidential race against Flávio Bolsonaro, said the industry was a "cancer" that he must "remove".
**Brazil's Lula bans online gambling ahead of presidential election**
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has announced a ban on online gambling just days before an election in which he is seeking a fourth term as the country’s leader.
Lula, who is running against the son of jailed former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, signed a provisional order on Friday that "prohibits all sports betting and online casinos".
Online gambling in Brazil was legalised in 2018 and has since been blamed for widespread losses in household income linked to addiction.
Lula said the industry, which he has called a "cancer", must be stopped. "Either we remove the tumour, or it kills us," he said.
The decision comes a little more than a week before the first round of voting in Brazil’s presidential election. Recent polls show the 80-year-old leader nearly tied with Flávio Bolsonaro.
The new rules must win congressional approval within 120 days to stay in effect.
In a statement on X, Lula said online betting was created under former President Michel Temer’s administration but "grew without regulation under Bolsonaro's management". He said there were "no restrictions" especially to stop children and adolescents from accessing online betting.
"We won't allow betting companies to profit at the expense of Brazilian families' income and lives," the president added.
Lula also said he had heard from families who sold everything in their homes because of gambling addiction.
Alongside the online betting order, Lula also signed a bill to punish criminal offences tied to fixed-odds betting.
Earlier this week, at the United Nations General Assembly, Lula accused the industry of "transforming addiction into profit".
But Flávio Bolsonaro described the gambling crackdown as "populist, hypocritical and politically motivated" at a campaign rally in Rio de Janeiro on Friday, according to Reuters.
Most forms of gambling, including casinos and slot machines, are illegal in Brazil, but online betting has surged in popularity since it was legalised in 2018.
A survey by Atlas and Bloomberg published this week found that 59.9% of Brazilian adults support banning internet betting.