Nearly 28% of Brazilian high school students say they have already placed bets on online gambling platforms, known in Brazil as bets, even though gambling is banned for anyone under 18. Among students in the final years of elementary school (grades 6 to 9), the share is 16.2%. Betting typically starts at around age 11, and by that age 9.5% of respondents said they had already wagered.
The survey was released on Wednesday (Sept 9) by the cross-party Education Caucus in Congress, the Frente Parlamentar Mista da Educação, together with the data initiative Equidade.info. Researchers interviewed 1,912 students at 191 schools across the country, in person, using structured questionnaires, in August and September. According to Folha de S.Paulo, the confidence level is 95% and the margin of error 2.4 percentage points.
What the numbers show
Prevalence rises with age: it reaches 32.3% among 17-year-olds, 40.1% among students aged 18 or older, and 49.7% in the final year of high school, according to the state news agency Agência Brasil. Across the full sample, 27.8% of boys had already bet, against 12.6% of girls; in high school, the gap widens to 41.7% versus 12%. Public and private schools show nearly identical prevalence. In public schools, more students report having won more than they lost (7.4%); in private schools, more report having lost more than they won (9.5%).
Two findings call for caution. First, the data are self-reported, and many students do not track their own results: four in ten who have bet cannot say whether they won or lost more on the platforms. Second, the estimate that aggregate losses among this group could exceed R$ 1 billion is a projection by the researchers, not an audited figure. Maternal schooling alone explains little: 22.7% of children whose mothers have only elementary education have already bet, compared with 19.6% when the mother finished high school and 22.8% when she has a college degree. According to the study, the most vulnerable students are those "in households with more assets, but enrolled in public schools and with parents lacking higher education".
What is preliminary and what is recommended
Financial education in the curriculum did not reduce exposure to betting in this survey: according to Agência Brasil, students in schools with more financial literacy showed a higher probability of betting and less control over gains and losses. This is an association observed in a single round of data, with no proof of causation yet. The study coordinator, Guilherme Lichand, a professor at Stanford Graduate School of Education, argues that solutions focused on individual behavior tend to fail, because scientific studies show that reminders about past losses, an intervention suggested by the platforms themselves, do not work.
"Instead, banning advertising and levying meaningful taxes on the amounts transacted by betting platforms puts responsibility on the right actors and has proven effects on reducing exposure risk", Lichand said.
The caucus chair, Representative Tabata Amaral, told Folha de S.Paulo: "We are talking about a practice that can undermine the financial health and the development of an entire generation". The survey's recommendations target regulators: higher taxes on platform transactions, restrictions on advertising, and specific protections for minors. For families and schools, the most actionable figure is the starting age: if betting usually begins around age 11, the conversation needs to start much earlier than high school.