Online Betting Seen as Side Income, With Limited Impact on Household Bills

According to a survey conducted by Datafolha, 10% of Brazilians have played online or in casinos. This poll was held on April 8-9 among 2,002 Brazilians from 117 cities.

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Out of all people involved in betting (209 subjects), 46% said that they do it to earn additional money in order to pay for some household needs. Overall, 5% of subjects confessed that they have bet to cover their bills.

Surprisingly, only 1% of subjects reported that they used the money that they needed to spend on regular bills. That means that, for most subjects, betting does not interfere directly with the necessary expenses.

Frequency and User Profile

Moreover, 2% of all subjects surveyed often placed bets, 4% did that sometimes, and 4% occasionally. It should be noted that more males (14%) were engaged in betting than females (7%).

The main user profile includes young people who are of high school age and earn less than two minimum wages (around R$3,242). These are characteristics of users, which implies their sensitivity to economic changes.

Debt, Behaviour, and General Economy

This data comes together with the growing household debt issue in Brazil. According to the same research, 67% of Brazilians have some kind of financial debt, and 21% have arrears.

As Lauro Gonzalez, who works at the Center for Microfinance and Financial Inclusion at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV), stated: “Betting takes part of this responsibility without question, but it is not the only cause, nor it is true that everything depends on financial literacy, which is also crucial. It depends on many variables: income, inflation, and economic growth.”

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This opinion shows that there are bigger economic factors at play that affect the debt rate.

Comparative Evidence from International Sources

On the other hand, there is a completely different picture in some studies from abroad. For instance, a study published by NBER showed that each US$1 invested in online betting corresponds to an equivalent decrease in the amount of savings or other investments.

Researchers used transaction-level data to analyze transactions on major platforms, such as FanDuel and DraftKings. Thus, it could be concluded that there was some kind of trade-off.

Betting in the Frame of Household Budgets

In Brazil, another study done by LCA Consultoria on behalf of the Brazilian Institute of Responsible Gaming revealed that betting accounted for 0.46% of household expenditures. As for alcohol, it accounts for around 0.5% of the household budget.

Thus, even though betting became a part of Brazilian reality, its contribution is relatively small. Nevertheless, the effect of betting on the long-term prospects of specific users remains questionable.

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Source: BNL Data