(Jamma) A motion by the Northern League asks the mayor and the council of Vigevano to undertake to convene a table with the traders, to study strategies suitable for stemming the phenomenon. The document, presented by the Northern League council leader Enrico Chiapparoli and by the councilor Paola Cavallini, will be voted on in the next session.
The text of the motion explains that "to stop the growth of patients suffering from gambling addiction, some Municipalities - of which about forty in the Milan area - have joined the mayors' manifesto against gambling, promoted by associations present in the area" . And again that "the same mayors of Mede and Pavia had already raised the problem at the time". In the province of Pavia alone «there are 70 players. The largest group is that of the under 24s, about 54 percent of the total, who use slots and video poker at least once a week. Women have gone from 13 per cent of the total to 30 per cent, "while 66 per cent of the unemployed look for an alternative to lack of work in gambling". The number of patients being treated for gambling addiction in the structures of the Local Health Authorities of the Lombardy Region has now reached 1400 people. So the motion of the Northern League, mostly in Vigevano, asks that "the mayor and the municipal council undertake to convene a table with the trade categories present in the area, to verify the possibilities and methods suitable for preventing increasingly characterized behaviors from an addiction in all respects similar to those of alcohol, drugs or tobacco".
Paolo Bandinu, the director of the Vigevano merchants' association, intervenes on the table's proposal: «We are always available to open a dialogue with the municipal administration – he declares -. If a discussion table is organised, we will certainly participate».
