Opinion – Juca Kfouri: Gambling is always a magnet for banditry

History is as old as football, to be just one sport.

Old hats loved to tell how they bought the opponent’s goalkeeper or the referee to win games. Or how they didn’t even have to spend a penny, just threaten.

Times have evolved, and the simple need to win to do well in the championship has turned into an opportunity to get rich.

In Brazil, in March 1970, during the dictatorship, the sports lottery emerged, supported by Caixa Econômica Federal.

For 12 years it made millionaires among its winners and made the media happy with generous advertising funds.

The Zebrinha do Fantástico became a friendly character on Brazilian Sundays until, in October 1982, a devastating report by Placar magazine denounced, in 13 pages, a gigantic scheme of manipulation of the results of the games chosen for betting. The fag became a spokesperson for the Lottery Mafia.

The credibility of the so-called lottery was put on the sidelines and never recovered even though, immediately after the complaint, with 125 players, top hats, businessmen and referees involved, it was defended by those who had their earnings harmed.

Curiously, the thread of the gangs spread across the country, in Curitiba, Salvador, São Paulo, Fortaleza and Rio, emerged in Santos, led by the late reporter Sérgio Martins.

Since then, new scandals have followed, such as the case of former referee Edilson Pereira de Carvalho, revealed by André Rizek, in Veja, in 2005, the so-called Mafia do Apito, involving clandestine gambling, such as the Italian Totonero, who , in 1980, threw in the mud the name of Paolo Rossi, executioner of the Brazilian team in the World Cup in Spain.

The internet has exponentially expanded the possibility of globalizing betting, not only on the outcome of games but also on the number of corners in a match, fouls, or how many times the Corruptópolis FC goalkeeper will spit on the pitch or in the gloves.

There are dozens of books already published around the world with proof that Asian, African, European and American groups manipulate from tennis to volleyball — it seems that chess has not yet, perhaps because it reminds us of the sun rising squarely.

In Brazil, the number of sports betting stands, sponsoring 11 out of ten sports programs, club shirts, with former athletes and communicators in the role of poster boys, all of them with headquarters outside the country, without control is scandalous. none, from the IRS, from anyone, not to mention the conflicts of interest they produce and the obvious money laundering.

Let’s remember that regulation is insufficient, just remember when bingos were briefly legalized in Brazil, to the disgrace of former ministers Rafael Greca, of Sport and Tourism, and José Dirceu, of the Civil House. Because, without moralism, gambling is always a magnet for banditry.

Here, again in Santos, comes the courageous denunciation by Andres Rueda, the president of Santos, that a now ex-employee of the club wanted to buy facilities from Bragantino’s goalkeeper, which the player confirms.

As happened 40 years ago, don’t doubt the rare reader and the rare reader: it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Since in Patropi even the past is uncertain, one misses the top hats that corrupted opponents out of love.