Territory, finance and rules: a georaphical perspective on the pratice of gambling and betting in Brazil and Spain

Abstract

The gambling and betting market is an important activity in the world's urban economy and is becoming an increasingly important part of the daily lives of a significant portion of society. Such phenomenon established as an age-old practice, whether as a vice, amusement, pastime or competition (SOARES, 1993). In Brazil, according to Freyre ([1933] 1987), the practice of gambling dates back to the indigenous tradition, but it became widespread with the arrival of the Portuguese Royal Court in 1808. In Spain, the exploration of gambling is even older and dates back to the 14th century, but one notable similarity is that in both Spain and Brazil, the purpose of lotteries was to raise money for social projects. Our research seeks to understand the practice of gambling and betting in Brazil and Spain in the light of geographical theory, using the idea of geographical space (SANTOS, [1996] 2014) as the main reference point, in order to understand the logic of how the activity works and its division of labor. So, to apprehend the importance of gambling and betting for the dynamics of urban economies, we intend to understand five main processes: 1. The historical development of the activity; 2. The evolution of technical systems and their regulatory structure; 3. The degree of capitalization of the different gambling and betting practices; 4. The location of these gambling and betting services in the use of the territory; and 5. The parallels and contrasts between the practice of this activity in Brazil and Spain. In this sense, the interest in an internship abroad seemed important to us because it makes possible to broaden the scope of our research by incorporating an analysis of the gambling and betting market in Spain, as well as allowing us to build fruitful geographical debates about the activity in the academic environment of the University of Seville (US).