Eighty-one parliamentarians against gambling. With two separate questions to the Chamber (but of identical sign) 39 deputies of the Pdl and 41 of the Pd urge the executive to intervene with initiatives that not only regulate this sector in exponential expansion, but also protect families, young people and adolescents. And at Palazzo Madama a similar solicitation to the executive comes from a question from a PDL senator.
To worry not only the size of the phenomenon, but also the awareness of the infiltration of criminals. The gambling industry has recorded enormous profits in recent years and has assumed dimensions that place it in fifth place, after Fiat, Telecom and Enel: per capita expenditure in Italy has the world record with over 500 euros per person. A constantly increasing economic activity: 35 billion euros spent on legal gambling in 2007, 42 billion in 2008 and over 50 in the two-year period 2010. And there are families who manage to invest 6,5% of their income in gambling, getting into debt with the consequent recourse to loans at usury rates. The weakest groups are involved.
The pdl deputies accuse: "To the legal turnover estimated at 76,1 billion euro we must add the 10 billion of the illegal one because the mafias are credited with being the eleventh 'hidden' monopoly concessionaire". The deputies of the Democratic Party increase: “Numerous studies reaffirm the danger that the new online gambling can pose within the adolescent groups and recent data confirm how young people engulfed in compulsive gambling are a frontier of the illegal business linked to loan sharking”.
Hence a large number of suggestions: limit advertising and marketing messages aimed at the game; ensure full transparency of the gaming companies both on their ownership and on the operations carried out; predict the crime of gambling; exclude this type of commercial activity from the liberalisations.
