Abstract
We investigated the demographics, gambling-related harms, and risk for gambling disorder (GD) associated with an illegal national lottery-type game called Jogo do Bicho that is culturally unique to Brazil in a sample of 5407 representative Brazilian lottery players. Participants reported on demographics, gambling behaviors, gambling-related harms, and GD. A total of 27.0% of the participants reported playing Jogo do Bicho in the past year. Jogo do Bicho was associated with greater risk of GD with 5.7% of current Jogo do Bicho players meeting diagnostic criteria. Jogo do Bicho was also associated with greater gambling-related harms. Older participants, males, individuals who self-identified as Black, and who were widowed were more likely to be current Jogo do Bicho players. Jogo do Bicho is a popular activity among legal lottery players in Brazil despite its illegal status and is associated with greater harms and increased risk of GD.
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Data Availability
Data are available upon request with permission from the authors REB.
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Funding
This research was funded by the CAIXA, the state-run operators of gambling activities in Brazil to the senior author. The data are the property of the Department of Psychiatry of University of São Paulo, which holds unrestrained reporting rights without previous consultation or interference from the funding source. This research also received support from MITACS Globalink Research Award to HSK.
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Conceptualization: HSK, DCH, and HT. Data curation: MCM, HT, and MS. Formal analysis: HSK and MS. Funding acquisition: MCM and HT: Investigation: HT. Methodology: HT. Project administration: MCM. Resources: HT. Supervision: DCH and HT. Writing–original draft: HSK. Writing–reviewing and editing: DCH and HT.
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Approval was obtained from the Research Ethics Board of Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sao Paulo. The procedures used in this study adhere to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki.
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All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000 (5). Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.
Competing Interests
HSK has received research funding from the Alberta Gambling Research Institute (Canada), Gambling Research Exchange Ontario (Canada), and International Center for Responsible Gaming (US). HSK has received speaker/travel honorarium from Alberta Gambling Research Institute (Canada), New Horizons (Canada), and the Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling. DCH has received research funds from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Health Canada, Alberta Gambling Research Institute, and the Ministry of Health, New Zealand. He has received consulting fees from the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction. He is a member, but receives no compensation from the National Centre for Responsible Gaming Scientific Advisory Board, UBC Centre for Gambling Research, various journal editorial boards, WHO Committee on the Public Health Implications of Addictive Behaviours, and International Scientific Advisory Board of the Centre of Excellence in Responsible Gaming (CERG) at the University of Gibraltar. He has received conference travel funds from New Horizons, Health Management Systems of America, Gambling International Symposium, Switzerland, V Congresso Clinca Psiquitria, Brazil, NCRG, Las Vegas, and Responsible Gambling Council, Toronto. HT has received grants from the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development) for the concession of Productivity Grant Process CNPq 304767/2011–5 and concession of the resource for the Universal Project Research Aid in the Process CNPq 445465/2014–0; Federal Bank of Brazil (CAIXA), worked from March 2015 to August 2017 as a responsible gambling consultant for the national lottery products under Contract #3800/2015 and Process #7066.01.0168.01/2015; World Lottery Association, member of the Independent Assessment Panel for the responsible gambling certification from October 2015 to February 2016; and Serasa-Experian, by granting resource contract with no number for the development of debt management and financial education for young couples’ program during 2014. MS and MCM have no conflict of interests to declare.
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Kim, H.S., Sanches, M., Mariani, M.M.d.C. et al. Examining the Gambling-Related Harms, Gambling Disorder, and Player Characteristics of Jogo do Bicho (an Illegal National Lottery) in a Representative Sample of Brazilian Lottery Players. Int J Ment Health Addiction 22, 162–177 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-022-00865-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-022-00865-3