Zero growth prospects. By Stefano Sbordoni
Emilia Romagna. In the local police reform project, the fight against gambling is the subject of inter-municipal agreements
(Jamma) Although the Balduzzi decree provides for the possibility of stipulating agreements between local institutions and the Ministry of the Economy, the struggle of the Municipalities is still unequal, which with the sound of ordinances, urban planning changes and appeals to the judiciary, try to set a limit to the spread of slot machines near schools and sensitive places. “The truth is that the mayors have been abandoned”, the mayor of Pavia and president of Anci, Alessandro Cattaneo, declared to Avvenire, highlighting the need for national legislation to strengthen the action of the administrations. "In Pavia - he explains - with a police regulation we have fixed the minimum distance of 500 meters of slot machines from schools and hospitals", but the absence of a national law "makes any measure weaker".
The difficulty of the administrations is demonstrated by the cases of Verbania and Vicenza, where the mayors have engaged in a tough fight against the concessionaires, resulting in losers in front of the Tar which proved them right in the name of the market and free competition.
But there are those who don't give up and resort to new tools. This is the case of the Municipality of Vicenza, where the newly re-elected mayor Variati first appealed to the Council of State after the Tar rejected the measures against gambling addiction because they were "useless"; now he has opened a page completely dedicated to gambling addiction on the Municipality website, with numbers, explanations and ordinances.
All this while 183 Municipalities have already adhered to the "Manifesto of Mayors for the legality of gambling" promoted by Terre di mezzo and Legautonomie. The goal is a proposal for a popular initiative law that regulates the sector, limiting it with higher taxes, more in-depth controls on money flows and a ban on advertising.
