The 2026 FIFA World Cup, held in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, ended several weeks ago, but certain practices that intensified during the tournament appear to have become permanent. Among them is online sports betting.
For weeks, betting became part of the everyday football experience: in broadcasts, on social media, on jerseys, through influencers, and in promotions offering immediate access from a mobile phone… The World Cup served as a gigantic amplifier for an industry that had already been growing in Latin America.
At Voices!, we conducted a national survey in Argentina immediately after the tournament that helps put the phenomenon into perspective. Twenty-nine percent of adults said they had participated in some form of betting during the World Cup, while 14% said they had bet money. The incidence was much higher among young people aged 18 to 29: nearly half (47%) participated in some form of betting, and 28% bet money.
The tournament was not only a period of increased activity among regular bettors. For 28%, it was the first time they had ever done so. For another 28%, betting had until then been something exceptional. Thus, for many, the World Cup was a gateway. And that door may remain open: nearly half of those who bet money during the tournament believe they will probably or certainly continue doing so in the coming months, while among those who bet online for the first time, nearly one-third say they intend to continue.
Why do people bet? Money matters, but it does not explain everything. The main motivation among those who bet was curiosity, followed by the desire to make money and to do it with friends, family members, or colleagues, highlighting the social dimension of this activity.
In Argentina, inquiries related to compulsive gambling increased by 27% in 2025. Gambling disorder can affect several dimensions at once: economic—debt and loss of savings; emotional and mental health—anxiety, depression, guilt, and despair; family and social—lies, conflicts, isolation, and deteriorating relationships; and work or education, through loss of concentration, absenteeism, or dropping out.
Although most people who place a bet will not necessarily develop a gambling problem, the cultural shift we are witnessing is that betting is beginning to become part of entertainment, social interaction, and the sporting experience itself. There is also a fundamental technological transformation: to place a bet, you no longer need to go to a casino or betting shop, or even be in front of a computer. It can be done from a mobile phone, at any time and from anywhere.
This change is particularly relevant when we look at younger people. Kids Online Argentina, a UNICEF and UNESCO study involving more than 5,900 children and adolescents, concluded that entry into online betting occurs mainly around the age of 13, coinciding with access to digital wallets. This is not about demonizing a tool that has greatly expanded financial autonomy, but rather recognizing that digitalization has eliminated barriers that previously separated minors from certain practices reserved for adults.
Added to this ease of access is another factor: the enormous visibility that betting gained during the World Cup. In our survey, 63% of Argentines said they had seen advertising or promotions for betting platforms very or fairly frequently during the tournament. A study conducted by researchers at the University of San Andrés and published by Chequeado analyzed 274 advertisements broadcast during 32 World Cup match broadcasts and found that betting was the advertising category with the greatest presence: it led in three of the four dimensions analyzed. The same is true in Brazil, where an analysis of 22 broadcasts of the domestic championship conducted by Folha de São Paulo found some form of betting advertising visible for 70% of the time.
This exposure may change the place that betting occupies in our culture. Seven out of ten Argentines believe that the constant presence of advertising contributes to normalizing betting and making it appear to be an activity without many risks, while a similar proportion believes it may particularly encourage adolescents and young people to bet. In any case, the cost of this advertising reach has been high: half of society directly calls for such advertising to be banned, while 34% would tolerate it, but with restrictions.
Betting advertising also carries a reputational cost for those who participate in it. Forty-seven percent of Argentines say their opinion of a public figure worsens when that person promotes a betting company; only 9% say their opinion improves. An Ipsos-Ipec study concluded that in Brazil, 51% of the population also had a negative perception of those who promoted betting companies. This raises an interesting question for brands, athletes, clubs, and influencers: how much are they willing to risk in terms of reputation in exchange for the visibility and revenue that betting offers?
One of the most sensitive issues surrounding the subject is minors’ access. At Voices!, 54% of adults considered that minors had an easier time accessing online betting during the World Cup, while 72% considered the controls intended to prevent this access to be ineffective or largely ineffective. Adolescents themselves also appear to be calling for greater protection. A study by the Humanitarian Observatory of the Argentine Red Cross, conducted among more than 11,400 adolescents aged 13 to 18, found that eight out of ten believe that current measures to prevent minors from accessing betting do not work.
The demand for stricter limits does not appear to be exclusively Argentine either. In Chile, 57% of the population expresses a high level of concern about the impact of online betting on minors, while 58% favor maintaining the ban on online gambling platforms, according to a recent Datavoz survey.
This need for prevention is already generating responses from civil society. The Argentine Advertising Council launched the campaign “It Looks Like a Game, But It’s a Trap,” aimed at adolescents and young people. The initiative seeks to bring into discussion precisely what normalization can make invisible: that behind an activity presented as entertainment lie risks that need to be understood. The campaign proposes discussing the issue without moralizing or stigmatizing, while providing young people and their families with prevention tools.
When we asked at Voices! who should bear the main responsibility for preventing minors from accessing online betting, families came first. But behind them came the state, the betting platforms themselves, social media and digital platforms, sports organizations, the media, and schools. Ultimately, responsibility is shared because the ecosystem is shared as well.
As gambling-addiction specialist Débora Blanca points out, it is not enough to ask an adolescent to “know when to stop” if, at the same time, they have a platform available 24 hours a day in their pocket, a digital wallet with which to fund it, promotions offering bonuses to get started, admired figures who legitimize it, and advertising that integrates it into their sporting experience. Nor can all the responsibility be placed on families. Adults play a fundamental role in conversation and support, but they are competing with a digital and commercial ecosystem of enormous scale and sophistication.
Betting is ceasing to occupy a space separate from everyday life and becoming integrated into sport, entertainment, and digital culture. For a generation that grew up with the mobile phone as an extension of its social life, the boundaries between playing, watching a match, consuming content, and betting are becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish.
It is important to reflect on what place we want betting to occupy in our sporting and digital culture, what limits should apply to its promotion, how we protect minors, and how we distribute responsibility.
The World Cup is over. But for many, the betting has only just begun.
Autor
Director of the Argentinean consulting firm Voices. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of WAPOR Latin America, the regional chapter of the World Association of Public Opinion Research.
