Brazil's President Lula bans online betting ahead of presidential election

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Friday signed an order banning fixed-odds betting just over a week ahead of the first round of the presidential election, in a move he said was designed to tackle the pervasive problem of families falling into debt.The decision ends the operation, offering, intermediation and advertising of betting. The provisional executive order comes into force immediately but will need congressional approval within 120 days to remain in effect. It prohibits new deposits into accounts and gives users of betting platforms until Oct. 5 to withdraw their funds. Lula's government has also drafted a bill to establish criminal offenses related to fixed-odds betting — the most common and dominant type of online sports betting — such as promoting them and using personal data to solicit bettors.“I made the decision to take a hard, drastic and necessary measure,” he told journalists in Sao Paulo. “It’s like cancer, you take out the tumor, or the tumor will kill us.”Lula had also criticized the betting industry earlier this week at the United Nations General Assembly, accusing it of “transforming addiction into profit” and of “destroying hom...