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PlayOJO Launches Latest Campaign to Raise Awareness of the Signs of Problem Gambling
PlayOJO, the fair online casino powered by SkillOnNet, announces its latest campaign in partnership with Gemma Collins to encourage responsible gambling.
The TOWIE star and online Casino have partnered on a spoof fragrance launch to highlight that problem gambling is the ‘addiction with no smell’ and to help people recognise some of the early signs that someone they love, may be developing an issue.
The fragrance itself was named Compulsion, to hint at the behaviours that are often displayed by those who are struggling, such as lying about their finances and exhibiting extreme mood swings.
To raise awareness of the hard-to-spot, tell-tale early signs of potential gambling issues, PlayOJO and Gambling organisation, Breakeven have developed a new acronym to help concerned players, or those close to someone whom they suspect might be hiding an issue.
The SMELL acronym is designed to encapsulate the five signs of gambling issues that might be easiest to spot and are:
S – Sleep – is your loved one struggling to sleep at night?
M – Money – is your loved one inexplicably losing money or struggling financially?
E – Extreme – is your loved one exhibiting extreme mood swings?
L – Losing – is your loved one losing interest in the pursuits they have historically enjoyed?
L – Lying – have you caught out your loved one for not telling the truth recently?
Peter Bennett, Head of Marketing at PlayOJO, comments, ‘Our business is built upon the principle of fairness and transparency. We are committed to doing what we can to provide people with the information they need to help identify potential problem behaviours, and offer access to those in need of help to ensure Play Ojo is a safe place for people t have fun and gamble responsibly.
As part of the campaign we have launched a dedicated hub offering expert guidance and insight from our partners at Breakeven which is an extension of our ongoing strategy and commitment to providing advice and support aound the clock.
Our hope is that by working with Gemma and Breakeven, we will raise awareness of this issue and help encourage people to access support services if they spot the signs highlighted by the Compulsion campaign in themselves or a loved one.”
As part of the campaign, Gemma carried out an interview with Ian Semel, CEO of Breakeven, a charity that offers free counselling to individuals who are struggling with gambling behaviours issues, to better understand the early signs and minimise gambling related harm, as well as educating on strategies that can be deployed to overcome it.
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Bets, vapes e a ilusão da proibição
A discussão sobre a proibição de apostas online no Brasil ressurge em um momento sensível do debate público, marcado por soluções simplistas para temas complexos.
Neste artigo, Thiago Iusim, fundador e CEO da Betshield Responsible Gaming, analisa os paralelos entre o mercado de cigarros eletrônicos e o setor de ‘Bets’, destacando como a tentativa de eliminar uma atividade por decreto tende a empurrá-la para a informalidade.
Para ele, a experiência brasileira mostra que proibir não extingue mercados — apenas reduz a capacidade de controle do Estado e amplia riscos para o consumidor.
O Brasil já viu esse filme antes.
Existe uma solução mágica que sempre reaparece no debate público brasileiro, normalmente em período eleitoral, quando um tema se torna politicamente incômodo: proibir.
A lógica é sedutora. No discurso, o “problema” desaparece. Na prática, ele apenas muda de endereço.
O caso dos cigarros eletrônicos mostra isso com clareza.
Os vapes nunca foram autorizados no país. São oficialmente proibidos desde 2009. Em teoria, portanto, não deveriam existir em terras tupiniquins. Na prática, estão por toda parte, sem controle sanitário, sem fiscalização efetiva e sem qualquer garantia sobre a procedência do produto.
A proibição não eliminou o mercado. Apenas eliminou a possibilidade de cercá-lo com regras.
Uma reportagem recente da CNN sobre o avanço das apreensões de cigarros eletrônicos ajuda a dimensionar esse fenômeno. O país não acabou com os vapes. Apenas empurrou esse mercado para um ambiente onde o Estado perdeu capacidade de controle.
O Estado proibiu. O crime organizado agradeceu e aplaudiu de pé.
Essa experiência ajuda a entender o momento atual do debate sobre apostas online no Brasil.
As bets já existiam antes da Lei 14.790/2023. Durante anos, o país conviveu com um mercado ativo, acessível pela internet e operando a partir do exterior, sem arrecadação, sem supervisão e sem instrumentos efetivos de proteção ao consumidor.
A atividade não surgiu com a lei. A lei surgiu porque ela já existia.
Regular foi a forma racional de trazer esse mercado para dentro de um ambiente controlável, com licenças, outorgas, identificação de usuários, prevenção à lavagem de dinheiro, regras de publicidade, mecanismos de proteção ao jogador.
Dezesseis meses depois, o debate público volta a flertar com a mesma solução simplista aplicada aos vapes: a ideia de que proibir faria a atividade desaparecer.
A essa altura, já deveríamos saber que não funciona assim.
No caso das apostas, o Brasil havia escolhido um caminho diferente: regular para controlar. Proteger o cidadão e a economia popular.
Voltar agora a discutir proibição como resposta para um mercado que já existe seria mais do que um erro regulatório.
Seria uma contradição histórica.
Ou, talvez, apenas a manifestação mais confortável de um certo moralismo público que prefere empurrar a atividade para a clandestinidade em vez de reconhecer sua existência.
No plano do discurso, a proibição pode soar vitoriosa. Na prática, ela serve apenas como embalagem moralmente confortável para soluções apressadas e politicamente convenientes.
Isso não passa de fantasia eleitoral. E, desta vez, ninguém poderá dizer que não conhecia o roteiro.
Thiago Iusim
Fundador e CEO da Betshield Responsible Gaming
The post Bets, vapes e a ilusão da proibição appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.
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Sports Betting, E-cigarettes and the Illusion of Prohibition
The debate over banning online betting in Brazil is resurfacing at a sensitive moment in the public discourse, marked by simplistic solutions to complex issues.
In this article, Thiago Iusim, founder and CEO of Betshield Responsible Gaming, analyzes the parallels between the electronic cigarette market and the ‘Bets’ sector, highlighting how attempts to eliminate an activity by decree tend to push it into informality.
According to him, the Brazilian experience shows that prohibition does not eliminate markets — it merely reduces the State’s ability to control them and increases risks for consumers.
Brazil has seen this movie before.
There is a magic solution that always seems to return to public debate, especially in election season, whenever an issue becomes politically inconvenient: ban it.
The logic is seductive. In the political narrative, the issue disappears. In real life, it simply moves elsewhere.
E-cigarettes make that point painfully clear.
Vapes have never been authorized in Brazil. They have been officially banned since 2009. In theory, they should not exist. In practice, they are everywhere, sold through social media, messaging apps, marketplaces, street vendors, and small retail shops, with no sanitary controls, no effective oversight, and no real guarantee of origin.
Prohibition did not eliminate the market.
It only eliminated the possibility of surrounding that market with rules.
A recent CNN report on the surge in e-cigarette seizures helps show the scale of the problem. Brazil did not get rid of vapes. It simply pushed the market into an environment where the state lost the capacity to control it.
The state banned it. Organized crime applauded.
That experience helps explain the current debate around online betting in Brazil.
Bets existed long before Law 14,790/2023. For years, Brazil lived with an active market operating online and from abroad, with no local tax collection, no regulatory oversight, and no effective consumer protection tools.
The activity did not emerge because of the law. The law emerged because the activity already existed.
Regulation was the rational response. It was the way to bring an already existing market into a controllable framework, with licenses, concession fees, user identification, anti-money laundering requirements, advertising rules, and player protection mechanisms.
And yet, just eighteen months later, public debate is once again flirting with the same simplistic solution applied to vapes: the fantasy that prohibition would make the activity disappear.
By now, Brazil should know better.
In the case of betting, the country had chosen a different path: regulate in order to control. Protect consumers. Protect the broader economy.
To now return to prohibition as a response to a market that already exists would be more than a regulatory mistake.
It would be a historical contradiction.
Or perhaps simply the most comfortable expression of a certain kind of public moralism that would rather push an activity into the shadows than acknowledge its existence.
In political discourse, prohibition can sound like victory.
In practice, it often functions as morally comfortable packaging for rushed and politically convenient decisions.
This is nothing more than electoral fantasy. And this time, no one will be able to say they did not know how the story would end.
Thiago Iusim
Founder and CEO of Betshield Responsible Gaming
The post Sports Betting, E-cigarettes and the Illusion of Prohibition appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.
Bichara e Motta Advogados
Los nuevos desafíos de la industria del iGaming en 2026
The post Los nuevos desafíos de la industria del iGaming en 2026 appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.
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