An online betting boom in Mozambique turns dreams to debt and despair as calls mount for more regulation. Sitting on the veranda of his home on the outskirts of Mozambique’s capital, João Vasco held a framed photo of his younger brother Pinto, who died by suicide this year after losing around $850 gambling. “I helped him with school fees and everything I could,” João, 37, recalled, pausing to fight back tears.
Pinto, 21, was in his second year at university, studying to become a history teacher, when João learned he was gambling and confronted him. He thought he had gotten through to Pinto. “Two months later, I found out that he was no longer going to university.
He told me, embarrassed, that he had debts because he had lost the tuition money.” One Sunday morning in May, Pinto hung himself at home. “When I saw the boy hanging from the rafter, I nearly collapsed,” João said. A photograph of Pinto Vasco, who died by suicide after incurring high gambling debts, held by his brother, João Vasco, Maputo, Mozambique, November 8, 2025.
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[Photo: Thomson Reuters Foundation/Samuel Comé] Police data showed at least 10 mostly young people died of suicide last year in cases linked to gambling in Mozambique. Pinto’s losses exceeded the country’s average income of $650 a year. On the outskirts of Maputo, billboards have sprouted up, promising big wins in a country where about 20 million people live in poverty, according to the World Bank. Some 25,000 people place a bet every hour on websites and mobile apps, according to the country’s General Inspectorate of Games (IGJ), which is responsible for licensing betting companies.
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