Advertisements for online casinos, including well-known sports betting sites, are being promoted by child influencers on Instagram. One profile promoting gambling belongs to a six-year-old girl with nearly 3 million followers. This type of betting is spreading across the country and is already affecting children and teenagers, with families and schools beginning to confront the addiction among the youth.
The Alana Institute, an NGO advocating for children and adolescents, filed a complaint last week with the Public Prosecutor's Office regarding illegal casino advertising by children and teenagers on social media. The complaint highlights the highly negative impacts of this addiction on youth, including the risk of suicide. It mentions the case of a 17-year-old boy from Maranhão who committed suicide last year after losing R$ 50,000, inherited money, on Fortune Tiger, a highly popular slot machine game known as the "tigrinho game."
As detailed in Alana's complaint, the profile of a six-year-old influencer features ads for casinos and betting sites, as well as promotions for raffles and expensive product giveaways, such as motorcycles and iPhones. One raffle, with tickets sold for R$ 0.10, offers a prize of R$ 10,000 plus an iPhone 12 Pro Max.