Betting CPI in Brazil puts forward raft of proposals and calls for indictments
Senator Soraya Thronicke presented the final report of the Parliamentary Inquiry Commission (CPI) on Betting on Tuesday, the 10th. In the document, the senator suggests indicting influencers Virginia Fonseca and Deolane Bezerra, among 14 others, for various crimes.
Soraya proposed that Fonseca be charged with deceptive advertising and fraud, while Bezerra should faces charges for illegal gambling and unauthorized lottery activities, along with fraud, money laundering, and involvement in a criminal organization. The senator recommended that the records be sent to the Public Prosecutor’s Office for further investigation and legal accountability, as well as to the Ministry of Finance’s Prize and Betting Secretariat for administrative action.
When it came to Fonseca the report stated that the purported bets made by the influencer on her social media were “not real.”
“The role of influencers on social media is not like any advertisement. It is based on the credibility derived from a supposed real engagement of these individuals. There is no doubt that these videos of fictitious bets mislead their followers about the earnings made by the influencer,” it states.
“Furthermore, by misleading her millions of followers—who believed her ‘bets’ were legitimate—and obtaining undue advantage, due to the bets made by these followers that generated millions for her and the betting companies she represented, there are indications that Virginia committed fraud,” noted Soraya.
As for Deolane, the report argues that she acted as a silent partner for an online gambling site.
The document also presents 18 proposed laws and a package with 21 measures to curb the uncontrolled rise of online betting in the country and mitigate its impacts on gamblers. The proposals include creating a national registry of gamblers, criminalizing predatory betting advertising, and establishing control mechanisms through financial institutions and payment systems.
