(Jamma) “Retirees and young people are the category of population most at risk of suffering from gambling. The advancing poverty also due to the lack of increases in pensions together with the fact that many retirees have pensions of less than 700 euros leads to looking for a stroke of luck in the game. More and more people and therefore families are being ruined by gambling”.
This was the alarm raised by Loris Cavalletti, regional general secretary of the Cisl Pensioners (Fnp), today during the discussion on the Emilia Romagna regional law proposal.
“On the one hand we want to point out the danger -Casletti continues- and on the other to explain the existing tricks behind the various systems, from 'scratch cards' to vending machines”. Furthermore, "we want to denounce the lack of revenue for the state compared to the large profits made by game distributors".
Hence the commitment of the Fnp in the area: scheduling meetings to sensitize public opinion on the risks of gambling; to prepare, through specific courses, retirees to be an active part of this fight against the damages of gambling and thus to pass from players to protagonists in the fight against the disease of gambling addiction, a scourge similar to drugs.
Requests for help against gambling addiction to the toll-free number (800033033) of the SSR increased from 6/7 contacts a day to 25 in the second half of January.
Therefore, for the Fnp an "undoubted support" is the regional law proposal 'against pathological gambling', which by highlighting the link between pathological gambling, social hardship and crime, intends to set limits on the presence of cinemas gaming, involving public opinion, educating operators and supporting gambling care programmes. Alongside the diffusion of the 'Slot free ER' brand, the bill provides for administrative sanctions for managers who transgress and activation of monitoring of the phenomenon by the regional Observatory.
