Abodi (Min. Sport): “We have reintroduced the football pools, but we cannot say it. The advertising ban must be reviewed"

'We have restored the football pools, but no one knows, because it cannot be communicated.". This was stated by the Minister for Sport and Youth, Andrea Abodi,in a hearing before the Suburbs investigation commission of the Chamber, talking about the complicated relationship between the Totocalcium and the anti-gambling laws: “The beneficial effects of Totocalcio, which also allocated a percentage to Sport and Health for social activities, in fact produce almost nothing, because we don't know, we don't know and we don't recognise”, he added. As has already happened in the past, the Minister reiterated his belief in the need to combat illegal gaming while maintaining that what is the subject of public concessions and which gives relative satisfaction to public finances must be promoted and protected. Communication is the tool that can allow us to draw the line between legal and illegal gambling as well as indicate the meaning of the limit a person can bet in a certain period of time to control the risk of gambling addiction, measures on which the Government will always be committed . 
The impossibility of betting legally also creates a competitiveness problem because all the sports clubs that cannot benefit from this income compared to European countries that have resources of this type. 
Abodi defined it as hypocritical to have banned the right to bet and then allow parallel communication by the same sites that simply promote an address websites which inevitably leads to betting anyway and therefore believes that at least we can talk about it. Remember what was done by the state property and monopolies agency precisely on legal gaming in the early XNUMXs which served not so much to increase betting, but rather to distinguish physical or virtual places in which it was possible to bet legally compared to those that offered illegal services that fuel the criminal economy. The right to bet also from the name is inspired by the experience born in France. He believes it is correct, fair and linear that when a value chain has been created that is based on the organization of a sporting event, of any kind, that the organizer also participates in this value chain. In fact, it seems that the circle is not closed when the State benefits from this organization of a private entity with the convenience, those who play and those who bet with the prize money benefit from it and the concessionaire companies benefit from it and do not take part in it. in some way also the organizer of the event. He reiterates that this is the spirit with which the Government has launched an idea which is not an act of disavowal of the profound meanings of the "dignity decree" but is simply a contribution to rethinking the model on the assumption that consumer protection remains , the fight against gambling addiction remains in place but respect rights are also recognised, on the one hand acquiring a concession on the other to those who organize an event that creates value.