More than 480,000 Brazilians support Lula’s betting ban

Around 480,000 Brazilians have voted for Lula’s betting ban in a Senate public consultation. In the e-Cidadania portal poll 478,845 votes were in favour and 80,387 against on 3 October. Proponents have more votes than the opponents approximately six to one. The e-Cidadania consultation, which is based on Senate Resolution 26/2013, is an informal opinion survey that has no effect on vote decisions in Congress. Efforts have been made to mobilize people for voting. On its website, the union of engineers of Rio de Janeiro Senger-RJ has called on members to support the measure, while CUT, the main labor confederation in the country, claimed that more than 80% voted in favor of the ban. 85% approval rating was the headline of Correio Braziliense. Turnout from other polls points to the same direction. A survey conducted by AtlasIntel before the measure was approved found that 70% of Brazilians considered gambling as a cause of their economic problems. If the Supreme Federal Court does not act, certified gambling websites and mobile applications would have to stop their operations by October 6, remaining licenses would lose power on October 25. Lawmakers must act on the matter before November 23, within the first period of 60 days from the beginning of the count, which may be prolonged one time by 60 days more. Websites stop working three days after counting is over, while petitions to the Supreme Federal Court are still in progress.