The influencer specializing in betting and responsible gaming, Daniel Fortune, revealed numbers from the project maintained on social media. The initiative raises awareness and helps hundreds of people in the fight against problem gambling.
In addition to bettors who seek help on social media, the creator has a specialized team. The group maps compulsive behaviors and monitors identified cases. Currently, the project directly serves around 120 people per month.
Contact with players takes place in the virtual community created by Daniel Fortune. The influencer has more than 390 thousand followers on social media. In this space, he publishes educational content and hosts live shows about responsible gaming. At the same time, it provides clear and accessible information to the public.
Interactions take place through comments on Instagram broadcasts and also through direct messages. This way, the team can identify possible signs of compulsive behavior.
Among the main pillars of the project is the creation of content for YouTube and Instagram. The material seeks to demystify promises of easy earnings. Likewise, it warns about scams and clandestine bets. Another important pillar involves the daily lives promoted by the influencer.
Daniel Fortune, influencer specializing in betting and responsible gambling, explains: “We do a mix of fun – where the person watches a live stream, can have fun and laugh at my reactions – but, at the same time as they are laughing, I am explaining how the game works, how to play responsibly and how to set limits.
For example: if I win X amount I will stop and withdraw. But beyond that, it is necessary to establish limits especially for losses, because if the person is losing money, the best thing to do is to stop playing.
This is a way to prevent the development of Problem Gambling, at the same time that the person is educated to understand how gambling works and that, in fact, it is just an entertainment model and not a source of income”.
Later, Fortune adds: “In our operation, we serve monthly on a voluntary or active basis, either with the person contacting us or with us offering them this help. We have around 120 general cases per month.
Of these, I would say that 10 to 15 are more extreme cases, where a person is already at the level of financial loss that has affected their life. In these cases, we refer you for follow-up. Obviously she has to accept it, but we make this recommendation.”
How the project identifies signs of problem gambling
Daniel Fortune also reported on how the team identifies behaviors considered concerning during live broadcasts.
Fortune highlights: “Sometimes I’m talking, on a live stream, about the importance of setting limits and someone comments: ‘Daniel, I deposited R$50 to play. I was very lucky. That 50 turned into, for example, 600.
And then I was overcome by euphoria, I couldn’t control myself, I gambled in an attempt to make more money and ended up losing everything. And now I feel really bad’.
When we notice this type of pattern of comments, we get in touch through my support team, who take a proactive approach and ask what happened, if the person is ok and if they feel they are at a level of problematic gambling, which is a step before gambling disorder”.
The influencer’s work acts as a preventative measure against the progression of gambling disease. Furthermore, it seeks to protect the mental health of bettors.
The actions take place thanks to partnerships with the Gambler Support Institute and the Brazilian Compulsive Support Company (EBAC). Organizations provide training for project staff. At the same time, they provide free psychological support for the players they serve.
Playing Responsibly
The project has been in effect since 2023. Since then, Daniel Fortune has also taught practices related to responsible gaming.
Fortune scores: “One of the criteria, as we like to say, is that you can only play money that you can afford to lose. So when someone asks me how much they should bet on the platform, I respond by asking how much the person is willing to lose and whether that money won’t be needed in the month or in the family budget.
If a person tells me it’s R$20, for example, then that’s the amount they have to play in the month, and that’s what they have to settle for, because it’s fun money, it can’t be seen as a form of income. So, if you’re going to play, you need to know that you’re most likely going to lose everything.”
Finally, Fortune concludes: “When a person absorbs this concept, they automatically restrict themselves, because, from the moment they realize that it is most likely that they will actually lose money, they will not put their entire salary into betting or an amount that will be missed.
And then she ends up self-regulating to only play what she can afford to lose. In this sense, it is also essential to reinforce that, when a person loses, there is usually a trigger to try to recover the amount.
And that’s where the big trap lies, because if she puts, for example, R$50 on the platform and loses, the tendency is for another 100 to try to recover, but she loses everything. And then it escalates.”
