Stefano Sbordoni, general secretary of UTIS, interviewed by Agimeg commenting on a recent statement by the Minister of Health Speranza - who signed the regulation for the adoption of the "Lines of action to ensure prevention, treatment and rehabilitation aimed at people affected by pathological gambling"-, according to whom "gambling is a dangerous addiction", he had to emphasize how in these days "a series of characters, representatives of important institutions and organizations ... have launched into sentences and declarations on things that they have no knowledge". According to the well-known lawyer, in fact, regardless of whether certain social phenomena such as public gaming are shared or not, "it's not permissible that even authoritative figures give a false representation to citizens, and above all without being aware of it". "Unfortunately, it's now widespread malpractice to talk inappropriately, not knowing what is expressed on the matter", continued Lawyer Sbordoni, according to whom "being a Minister also entails an even greater responsibility and certainly does not authorize you to comment on topics that you do not have lack of in-depth knowledge, especially of controversial topics such as in the case of gaming". The lawyer remarked that "regardless of the evident inadequacy of the statements by Minister Speranza, in this case there is a bad management of communication and a superficiality in giving messages that are not based on proven data". "The effect - continues Sbordoni - is that by doing so there is the risk of insinuating doubts about other and much more important pronouncements of the Minister: in the sense that if incorrect data are officially provided on a certain phenomenon (the game), citizens could also think that the same applies to the numbers linked to the pandemic, and this is a risk that we absolutely cannot take. In these difficult times we hope that no one creates alarmism where in reality there are none, and that people do not let their guard down where we need the utmost caution ". Lawyer Sbordoni wanted to reiterate that, as Utis, "we strongly believe in institutions, but those who hold institutional roles must do so adequately on every occasion" and that "the excellent work done to deal with the pandemic emergency risks being penalized by inappropriate exits such as the one on gambling addiction".
