flag-itflag-en

News details

Government and Gaming, Associations: 'We need a new Code'

The betting and bingo associations comment on the new Government's programmatic point on 'contrast to pathological gambling' and hope for a return to normality for the sector.

Reorganization of the sector, delegation law, opening of bets for bets and bingo: these are the points on which the representatives of the betting and bingo world ask for attention to the new Government, which took office yesterday Thursday 4 September, which it introduced in its program political, in paragraph 22 the contrast to pathological gambling.

MARCOTTI: "DO NOT DEMONIZE THE GAME" - "The theme of gambling remains one of the attentions of the Italian Government. The most important novelty is the addition of the term 'pathological' to that which was more generically defined as the 'fight against the game of 'gambling'.

I hope there is finally an awareness that playing with cash prizes is not a ludic activity to be fought tout but rather the distortion that leads to pathological dependence with dramatic repercussions for affection and one's family is to be countered. ".

These are the words of Italo Marcotti, president of Federbingo on the new government and on the political program that introduces in point 22, the "contrast to pathological gambling".

"The chain of legal gambling - Marcotti continues - is a garrison of legality, it carries out a regulated activity capable of producing employment, tax revenue and combating the mafias.

I hope that the new Government will be able to mitigate the prohibitionist tendencies inherent in a part of the Majority and that through a process of revision it will be able to propose to the market a model of collection of modern gaming, characterized by the use of advanced and computerized systems of contrast control of the dependencies and criminal activity.

We look forward to hearing the name of those who will receive the proxy to govern the gaming sector to understand what the working approach will be in the next few years.

I have always maintained - Marcotti comments - that the real contrast to the Gap is achieved by promoting a culture of play, capable of making the new generations understand the dangers inherent in abuse.

The prohibition implemented with the application of the distance meter and the hourly limitations of the collection are the emblem of the failure from the cultural point of view of our society.

A community that does not know how to educate, forbids, in the hope of being able to limit a phenomenon.

History teaches us that prohibition is only a great favor to the mafias and to the underworld in a general sense ".

SBORDONI: "FOR THE GOVERNMENT THE PRIORITIES SHOULD BE OTHER" - On this line is Stefano Sbordoni, legal gaming expert, interviewed by Gioconews.it.

"On the establishment of the new Government and on the programmatic point that refers to the game, the first thing that comes to mind is that in such a critical socio-economic situation there would also be other things to deal with.

Anyone in the industry knows the importance of combating pathological gambling, but there are issues to be urgently addressed that are neglected by governments and I hope that the new will pay proper attention to what operators and associations are asking for of play.

I trust in the wisdom and skills of those who will govern our country. Reforming the sector and releasing bets for betting and bingo are the top priorities.

I am of the opinion - concludes Sbordoni - that if the sector is controversial by nature, we must work seriously, avoiding too much talk and propaganda against the workers. This is the good policy of good governance ".

PALMIERI: "A NATIONAL DELEGATION LAW IS NOW REQUIRED" - "Also in the last government - explains Raffaele Palmieri, president of AssoSicon, a betting dealers' union - the center of the matter was pathological gambling but what we have been asking for a long time now is that a national delegation law is made that unifies Municipalities and Regions.

Need, in fact, a common denominator that governs the territories in terms of gaming in order to return to normal, to be able to relaunch a sector in crisis, to give a future to the workers, to be able to get out of uncertainty and put an end to the word to all these diatribes.

Seeking easy political consensus demonizing a legal sector is not the right way to find shared solutions and above all to limit business risk ".

UGHI: "THE GOVERNMENT LISTEN TO THE SALES POINTS AND NOT ONLY THE DEALERS" - "I still don't know what the new government will do - explains Maurizio Ughi, president of Obiettivo 2016 - but I believe that the new political structure must provide the country with a new Code of the games (on which the former Undersecretary for Economy and Finaze, Pier Paolo Baretta, was working on and then was then stopped), so that the sector characterized by strong development, has & new rules.

But the State, in order to be able to control and equip itself with a regulatory framework that works, must interface with the sales points and not only with the large dealerships, since it is only small and medium-sized businesses that know what is needed and what is not for the player.

The new rules must start from those who are in direct contact with the individual customer.

The Government, if it wants to do a thing done well and not only of economic convenience but of competence, must listen to the sales points.

The new Game Code must, therefore, be born from below and not from above".