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About The Golden City
During the livestream, the president stated that he had spoken with a woman who said her 26-year-old son had taken his own life because of online betting. He also mentioned hearing from a bettor who had racked up BRL2 million ($388,410) in debt in just three months of wagering.
Lula said he intends to discuss the matter with his team and analyse potential measures to consider the social impact of online betting.
What the president does not acknowledge is that the government relies on revenue from the sector. In just the first seven months of 2026, BRL8.747 billion generated by sports betting has already flowed into public coffers. The Federal Revenue Service estimates the total could reach BRL16 billion by the end of the year. In 2025, nearly BRL9 billion was collected from sportsbooks.
About The Golden City
Nothing could have been further from the truth.
In the late 2000s, we wrote a humor column for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Titled “Fear and Loafing,” it involved sampling odd jobs around town. One we wanted to try out was working as a personal assistant to a Vegas celebrity.
Every resident headliner up and down the Strip either declined or ignored our request. Most likely, the downside of having a working reporter snoop around their private life outweighed any potential upside.
What is The Golden City?
Grant has maintained that advantage play is not “dishonest or cheating” ever since his first legal brush with Star Casino.
However, he may have indeed been able to spot the imperfection in the cards, which is an outcome completely different than what was ruled in the case of Phil Ivey, a popular poker pro who ended up using edge sorting to win millions of dollars, but had to forfeit or repay his winnings in the end.
Grant said, at the time of his own case against Star Casino, that he had noticed cards being asymmetrical, but that he had no way of knowing what the next card on his table would be – just like other players there.
