“The parameters and levers of the new budget law are currently being discussed. Furthermore, press reports suggest that among the measures to obtain resources, regulatory initiatives are being examined to implement only part of the measures envisaged by the planned reorganization of the Fiscal Delegation. In fact, we are talking about reorganization of the online but not also a reorganization of the territory. Without taking anything away from the importance of a reorganization for online, in taking measures especially if emergency for the procurement of resources in the budget law, it must be remembered that proceeding in a non-uniform manner in the implementation of the Fiscal Delegation can concretely mean causing indirect penalties to the generalist network of the territory which is instead the protagonist in pursuing the main objectives of public interest underlying the existence of the sector itself". Thus in a joint note Acadi, AsTro, EGP and Sapar.
“It is no coincidence that the Fiscal Delegation has envisaged an overall and compact reorganization of the sector, both for the part of it committed to distributing state gaming products on the territory and for the part of it committed to distributing state products on the web. It is no coincidence that recently, on 7 November at the Friedman Institute conference in the Sala Regina of the Chamber, the trade associations consulted (Acadi, Astro, EGP and Sapar) asked in unison for a compact reorganization (both for the Hon line and for the territory, without temporal misalignments), raising the alarm of the possible consequences of any differentiated departures.
Starting with an incomplete reform - continues the note - and implementing a reorganization in stages risks nullifying in whole or in part even the public finance objectives pursued in this phase. And in fact, dealing only with online, not simultaneously foreseeing the physical reform with the solution of the territorial question, therefore leaving the State offer on the territories at the mercy of expulsion distance meters and unsustainable timetables without a concrete immediate prospect of reorganization means weakening that part of the system which largely ensures the main objectives of public interest in terms of user protection, legality and employment. Therefore not only for reasons of risk of cannibalization of supply. Among other things, in the event of a shift in demand for gaming from local to online, the same levels of tax revenue would not be guaranteed.
And this is what the numbers of the sector say, when the contribution of the territory is compared with the total of the sector. The general offer of bars and tobacconists in the territories - the associations highlight - is able to provide massive legality protection, with the presence of state gaming products in 75.000 points (of which 41.000 bars) in 6.044 of the 7.901 municipalities Italians. The same generalist offer with gaming machines ensures a significant revenue from the arcades of 5,9 billion euros (on the 11 products from the entire sector) and provides work with the other supply chains in the area to 140.000 employees of the estimated 150.000 of the entire sector.
In the same way, small and medium-sized businesses managing amusement machines with and without cash prizes are a safeguard of legality, an important voice for the Treasury and a first-level employment value. It is a system of companies that have deep roots in the territory and represent the State's front line in terms of legality and prevention of problem gambling. A misaligned and partial reform - the associations add - is a reform that risks being suitable for reducing, compressing, limiting or in some way indirectly penalizing the presence of the generalist network currently rooted in the territories: thus there is the risk of compromising the interests constitutional provisions of the protection of the user's health and public faith (realized with a measured offer controlled by the State and managed by expert operators), of the protection of public order in the territories such as the prevention of laundering of the proceeds of criminal activities (with the actual visible and effective presence), of the tax revenue (which is remembered as emerging) of employment (assured to date in fact in every part of Italy).
Ultimately, the protection of the territories, as well as of the web, by the State and the army of its public service representatives must not retreat. And this must not happen even for indirect reasons or for disorderly, non-homogeneous and non-compact applications of the Reorganization which, wisely, the Delegation Law dealt with without giving precedence or without marking the prevalence of any distribution vertical, due to the recognized importance of the mix of public offering consolidated over time for the pursuit of the public interests referred to", conclude the associations.
