Online casino gets four times more criticism than sports betting on social media, FGV study finds

A study led by FGV EAESP marketing professor Lilian Carvalho found that online casino receives nearly four times as many explicit negative comments on social media as sports betting. For PSPs and operators, the useful part is not the moral theatre; it is that consumers already draw a hard line between the two products even when the same platform sells both.

1. The research analyzed about 30,000 public mentions and included 26 in-depth interviews with bettors. It will be presented on 26 October at the 1st Observatório de Estudos Betting Brasil in São Paulo.
2. According to the study, Brazilian consumers associate sports betting with knowledge, strategy, and self-control. Online casino games, including virtual slots, are linked to chance, addiction, and financial losses.
3. Carvalho says bettors create a kind of moral boundary between the two verticals. Sports betting is framed as an activity that requires skill and information, while casino is seen as the higher-risk side of the house.
4. The study also examined search patterns linked to a major betting operator. Its conclusion is awkward for the industry’s packaging strategy: consumers distinguish the products, but platforms, brands, and affiliates often sell sports betting and casino under the same identity.
5. The interviews found another familiar pattern: respondents tend to describe their own betting as controlled, while assigning the serious risks to other people. In practice, that means many users acknowledge gambling-related harm in the abstract without seeing themselves as exposed.

For high-risk payment providers, that distinction matters because product mix is not just a marketing choice. If the same brand, funnel, and payment stack handles sports betting and online casino, the consumer perception gap can turn into a compliance and risk-management gap as well.