A report by Deutsche Welle (DW) reveals that Brazil does not have the necessary support structure in place to treat gambling addiction.
Despite recent advances in the regulation of sports betting, experts interviewed by DW warned that the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting (SPA) has not yet published an ordinance with guidelines and practices for the monitoring, prevention and treatment of gambling addiction, considered a disease by the World Health Organization (WHO) since 2018.
Thus, the regulation could already come late considering that the country does not have recent data on the phenomenon of gambling addiction.
The most up-to-date information is from a decade ago, according to psychiatrist Rodrigo Machado, from the Technological Addiction Outpatient Center of the Institute of Psychiatry of the University of São Paulo (USP).
A 2014 USP survey showed that 1% of the Brazilian population could develop gambling addiction during their lifetime, while another study by the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in 2009 showed that 1.6% of adolescents interviewed had gambling problems.
“These are outdated figures, because at that time there were no online casinos available via smartphone, and there was no widespread sports betting. We don’t have access to a real statistical scenario in Brazil, nor can we say whether there is an increase in cases,” Machado explained to DW.
The most recent data from the Ministry of Health show that the number of people treated for gambling addiction in the Unified Health System (SUS) increased from 108 to 1,200 between 2018 and 2023.
Training necessary to curb addiction
Given the changes introduced with the legalization and expansion of gambling, experts argue that health professionals must be trained to identify not only gambling addiction but also other mental health illnesses associated with it.
Anna Lúcia Spear King, a psychologist at the Borrar Institute of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), said that out of every ten people who go to the institute today, three have gambling problems.
Andre Gelfi, general director of the Brazilian Institute for Responsible Gaming (IBJR), told DW that the growing popularity of the “Jogo do Tigrinho” (Tiger’s Game) is a symptom of this lack of clear rules on responsible gambling in Brazil: “Today the situation in the market is quite worrying, everyone does what they want.”
The Ministry of Health said in a statement that gambling addiction is the responsibility of the Psychosocial Care Network (RAPS). They also stressed that they must join an Interministerial Working Group to deal with the issue, and that the measure is being discussed at the Ministry of Finance.
The Ministry of Finance, for its part, responded that it is working on a “robust set of rules to detect gambling-related disorders early and support gambling addicts before their behavior worsens.” In turn, it said that there is a lack of reliable data on the number of people addicted to gambling in Brazil.
Original article: https://www.yogonet.com/international/noticias/2024/08/01/73957-experts-warn-brazil-not-prepared-to-deal-with-problem-gambling-growth
