After the motion presented last Friday on the matter of the reorganization of the gaming sector, which we have reported on, the M5S increases the dose with the aim of obtaining a tightening of concessions and controls.
A group of M5S deputies (Quartini, Di Lauro, Marianna Ricciardi, Sportiello, Auriemma, Alfonso Colucci, Penza, Riccardo Ricciardi, Ascari, Cafiero De Raho, D'Orso, Giuliano) presented two amendments to the conversion law into law of decree-law 10 August 2023, n. 105, containing urgent provisions on criminal trials, civil trials, fighting forest fires, recovery from drug addiction, health and culture, as well as on matters of judiciary and public administration personnel, in which an amendment is proposed to the rules regarding gaming concessions. Specifically, this means:
a) fully apply the indications present in the reports of the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into the phenomenon of mafias and other criminal associations, including foreign ones, in the XNUMXth and XNUMXth legislatures, with particular reference to: anti-money laundering measures; to the extension to all contractual partners of the concessionaires of the requirements established by the anti-mafia legislation, in analogy with the regulation of the subcontracting of works and supplies to the Public Administration, contractual partners meaning all the subjects involved in the supply chain (distributors, installers of equipment and of any nature, in charge of maintenance, collection and payment of proceeds);
b) provide for the coordination and planning of the control system both in matters of public security and in tax matters, imposing by law a periodicity in the controls and identifying training and refresher courses for the personnel assigned to the controls; c) rethink the sanctions, with the provision of criminal figures also for the conduct currently sanctioned as a contravention in order to allow the contestation of the crime of criminal association for all illicit conduct in the gaming sector and extend the application of wiretaps telephone calls to the entire sector of gaming and betting crimes, regardless of the extent of the statutory penalties;
d) review the role and tasks of the Customs and Monopolies Agency by resolving the conflict of interest inherent in the function of public body that issues concessions and that of regulatory and supervisory authority, removing the tasks of checking compliance with obligations which dealers are required to, as well as to impose the relevant sanctions;
e) also provide for the establishment of preventive checks on the personnel employed by the subjects of the authorized supply chain, also by establishing specific registers and admission criteria (including: age of majority, possession of an identity card, having social security registration and for accidents) and exclusion (including: having been convicted of a crime; having been sentenced to a restrictive sentence of personal liberty for more than three years for a non-negligent crime without having obtained rehabilitation; having been subject to a warning or a measure of personal safety; having been declared a habitual, professional or tendency delinquent).
The second proposed amendment reads as follows: “2-bis. As part of the interventions referred to in paragraph 1, the following objectives have priority: a) adopt technical and regulatory measures aimed at guaranteeing full health protection, preventing gambling disorders (DGA) and gambling 'juvenile gambling;
b) make the inaccessibility of gaming to minors and the ban on advertising effective, removing any evasion of the aforementioned prohibitions, intervening on the verification of the real identity of the player and the traceability of money flows and prohibiting any possibility of incentive;
c) intervene on a cultural level, in schools and towards young people, removing any ambiguity about gambling and clarifying the risks associated with the use of video games, gaming and gambling;
d) safeguard and indeed strengthen the free circulation of data relating to gambling, including municipal information relating to Amusement with Prizes (AWP) and Videolottery (VLT) devices, as well as socio-health data relating to pathological gambling;
e) launch a plan for the further and progressive reduction of gambling collection, setting limits on time as well as expenditure starting from the most aggressive forms of gambling that offer the possibility of betting in close sequences, reducing the points of the offer network , today too widespread and difficult to control and favoring the recovery of forms of entertainment without cash prizes".
