Proposal to ban gambling adverts
The four bills debated in the Assembly of the Republic – by the Left Bloc, PCP, PAN and by the non-registered deputy Cristina Rodrigues – all suggest the ban on advertising of gambling and betting between 07:00 and 22:30, similar to the rules regarding alcoholic beverages, with the Left Bloc also calling for the end of advertising about instant lotteries, in reference to scratch cards.
Deputy Isabel Pires, from the Left Bloc, indicated that the party's proposal aims to "give the force of law to what has been understood as only a recommendation in the sector's self-regulation agreement", also extending the "restrictions to the online format, which entails increased risks, and which had clear growth driven by the pandemic”.
“We are not innovating, we are using methods that have been proven to help address the problem, and advertising is central to disincentives to demand this type of product,” she said.
From the PCP, Deputy Paula Santos recalled that in 2014, when the “online gambling and betting legalisation” was “legislated”, the executive led by Pedro Passos Coelho created a “more permissive regime, where incitement and stimuli for online games and betting are possible”.
In this sense, the communist deputy referred that the PCP proposal aims to “find solutions that allow reaching” the objective of “reducing stimuli, in particular for people, regarding gambling and betting”.
The non-attached deputy Cristina Rodrigues listed several statistics – such as the fact that Portugal is the country in Europe where more money is spent 'per capita' on scratch cards, pointing out that “it is necessary to invest in preventing” addiction to games and gambling.
“As such, we propose that it is only possible to advertise this type of game after 22:30 and until 07:00, and its proposed that, similar to what happens with tobacco packages, the bulletins of these games also have a warning as to the fact that they are liable to create dependency”, she indicated.
