These are tough times for the entertainment machine sector without cash prizes, which is what everyone now knows as fun, borrowing an English term to identify an extremely varied offer.
Table football, cranes, kiddie rides and much more, that is, the entire production that has nothing to do with slots or video lotteries. Despite the partially successful attempts to destroy a sector that cannot boast staggering turnovers, the sector continues to show signs of life in Italy, even if not like in the rest of the world. Cutting-edge technologies and digital are in fact unknown subjects in our country where products, as required by law, must remain anchored to questionable (and certainly ineffective) security criteria that stifle any desire for innovation.
The reminders from the trade representatives (about which there would be much to say but this is not the place) as well as appeals to the Customs and Monopolies Agency were of little avail: nothing is moving here.
After the granting (practically taken for granted) of yet another extension to the deadline for mandatory certification for devices, silence has fallen on the sector.
A meeting granted to the operators' representatives with the Regulator's officials (as is done to level the playing field with practically everyone) and then back to talking to each other about what should be done.
For years the 'chatter' has remained the same, a script already seen for the agendas of the meetings of the States General of Amusement, a surreal miscellany of entrepreneurial interests characterized more by the diversity of views than by the results achieved.
The last meeting, which was held in recent days, is no exception, with some 'excellent absences' perhaps not even very justified.
An opportunity to take stock of the situation, yet another thing must be said, and to understand how to move.
We've been talking about the same problems for years now. The (missed) opportunity of the decree delegating to Parliament from 2023 a reorganization of the gaming sector (currently setting aside the entire 'terrestrial' offer) only served to remind us that the approval procedures for the majority of devices remain an insurmountable problem. So much so that even the verification bodies identified by the ADM and accredited to certify the devices, guaranteeing their regularity, preferred to run away. To date, in fact, there is only one left (SGS Italia) still willing to take charge (obviously at the expense of the operators, importers and producers). The only one still available to also discuss with the operators to understand if there are margins to formulate proposals to be forwarded to the ADM on a possible modification of the approval procedures. Which is to say that if it is impossible to cancel it, we would at least like to simplify it, given that the proposal of some operators' associations to replace it with an obligation of self-certification, with which operators assume responsibility, even of a criminal nature, for their declarations regarding the conformity of the devices with the technical rules dictated by the ADM.
But this is not the only problem. Then there is the registration of equipment managers as possible producers and a series of other changes to the reference standards which would require passage through Parliament. How to say a MISSION IMPOSSIBLE!
And in this chaos of unresolved questions, what could be defined as a 'private question' appears, that is, the very future of the General States of Amusement, a reality born as a "innovative LAB”, made up of “associations, unions, entrepreneurs and technicians”. Could someone be tempted to transform it into an association, confederation (or maybe something else)? And how would the many associations that currently belong to it take it (starting from those with a long tradition)?
What we know is that in the coming weeks we will hear more about hopes, good intentions and announced programs. The only certainty is that for the moment nothing will change, with all due respect to the entrepreneurs who have already rolled up their sleeves in the past, trusting in good luck. (Depositphotos photo)
