Once again it will be a difficult job of mediation between the proposal presented by the officials of the Mef/Customs and Monopolies Agency and that of the representatives of the Local Authorities/Regions at the table where the reorganization of the physical gaming offer is being discussed.
More than five years after the first reorganization proposal (never translated into legislative and regulatory provisions), the positions still remain distant.
A new meeting is scheduled for today between the representatives of the group which must deal with the issues on which the reorganization decree will be based which will then be launched by the Council of Ministers, as per the fiscal delegation.
In the proposal signed by the Ministry of Finance we return to talking about minimum distances from sensitive places (always a very thorny issue as is that of reducing supply) but from a more 'feasible' perspective in consideration of the difficulty of applying personalized solutions on the basis of the sensitivity of administrations to the problem of combating compulsive phenomena.
The technicians' proposal would be one distance of 250 meters from sensitive places, measured as the distance that can be covered on foot respecting the highway code and the shortest route. This solution should also take into account the possibility that activities and gaming points can be concentrated in peripheral areas, in compliance with the distance meter, i.e. the 'red zones' repeatedly feared by the legislator. Hence the introduction of a density value which could take the form of a distance between the same playing points of no less than 200 meters (a solution also adopted in other European countries).
As for the type of 'sensitive' places and activities, the Mef would advise caution and not further broaden the type of activity. This means being able to define a 'list' valid throughout the national territory dictated by a 'realistic' logic.
This means giving priority to schools, especially those attended by minors. Followed by churches and all other places of worship of recognized religions (with distances shorter than schools) and health facilities (starting from those where services for the treatment of addictions are provided). Barracks, gold shops, gyms or ATMs would not be classified as sensitive places.
THE TIMES. The operating hours of gaming machines, as well as the distances, require a 'normalisation' intervention compared to the solutions adopted in recent years by local authorities. No to wild 'closures' such as the permission to open for just one hour a day like the one recently adopted by an Emilian municipality, but to a closure between 7.00 and 9.00 and 12.00 and 15.00 to avoid as much as possible the access to gaming by minors (therefore at times of possible greatest attendance by them in commercial establishments).
