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(Jamma) "The crisis in the betting and horse breeding sector requires urgent regulatory intervention in order to relaunch the sector, in the awareness that times have changed, betting on racing has lost part of its original ability to attract bettors, today more interested in bets related to electronic games. This is how the rapporteur Paolo Russo (PDL) intervened during the examination in the referring office at the Agriculture Commission of the Chamber of the Russo-Faenzi bill containing Provisions for the promotion of the horse-racing sector.
“The proposal under examination – recalled Russo – resumes the work carried out during the past legislature, in which the Agriculture Commission had begun serious work to reform the sector, arriving at the approval, in the session of 12 December 2012, of a text unified.
The need to relaunch the sector was then also reflected in another provision, the tax delegation bill, in which a provision was inserted to delegate the Government for the overall reform of the sector. Even this provision could not complete the envisaged procedure.
The world of horse racing therefore needs a reorganization that allows efficient, productive, modern and as independent as possible governance of the sector.
Article 1 of the provision in question establishes the Italian Horseracing Union, a non-profit association, subject to the supervision of the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies, with the aim of relaunching activity in the sector; The breeders, owners and management companies of racecourses are members of the Union. The Ministry of Agriculture will have to establish the requirements for registration.
Article 2 provides that the Ministry of Agriculture itself, with the opinion of the economy, adopts, by 31 December 2013, one or more decrees, with the following content: definition of the provisional statute (which provides for the participation in the provisional Governing Council of a representative of the State Monopolies and of one of the Agricultural Dicastery, the latter acting as president), and quantification for 2013 of the obligatory contribution paid by the members, to allow the establishment of the association; definition of the essential criteria for the functioning of the Union and of the horseracing sector (establishing, among other things: the requirements of economic reliability and good repute that the management companies of racecourses and breeders must possess; the outline of the investment plan that the companies must submit and respect, under penalty of non-registration with the Union; the eligibility criteria of third parties, or other subjects of the horseracing sector; the other patrimonial, subjective and technical requirements that must characterize the racecourses and the management companies; the rules for the functioning of sports justice which will have to be based on the mandatory arbitration clause; the obligation to approve multi-year plans for breeding prepared by the Union).
Article 3 states that the functions carried out by the Agency for the development of the horse-racing sector (ASSI), abolished with the decree-law n. of 2012, are transferred to the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies, which becomes responsible for defining and updating the rules and controls relating to the activity of the sector. The provisions of paragraph 9-bis of article 23-quater 95 of 2013, according to which Unirelab srl continues of the decree law n. to carry out functions relating to the control of competitions and horse racing events until the transfer of its shares to the same Dicastery. This provision is repealed, providing that Unirelab will be dissolved or sold. For the functions carried out by the Agricultural Department, the allocation of 1 per cent of the total revenue of the Union is established, from the annual endowment fund.
Article 4 establishes the deadline of 30 September 2013 for the approval by the Union of the draft definitive statute. In addition to providing indications regarding the composition of the governing bodies of the association, the law also requires that all the necessary obligations be fulfilled by 31 December 2013 so that the horse racing sector can be fully functional starting from 1 January 2014; to this end it is envisaged that by 31 December 2013 the bodies and bodies and the organizational structure will be set up and the necessary fulfilments for the functioning of the horse racing sector will be fulfilled.
Consequently, article 5 lists the activities that the association will have to carry out from 1 January 2014 itself (calendar of horse racing events and related television programming, management and distribution of the annual endowment fund; disbursement of prizes in an amount of no less than 50 per percent of total revenue and remuneration of the racecourses through multi-year agreements; promotion of the sector; management of activities relating to the conduct of races and bets, including management of the database of races; registration for races; collection of bets and management of the television signal not pertaining to the racecourses; periodic control of the licenses of the operators; care of relations with the concessionaires for the collection of bets).
Pursuant to article 6, the association will be required to send a quarterly report on the progress of the bets to the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies and to the State Monopolies, providing, if necessary, indications on possible improvements.
Article 7 obliges the association with a balanced budget. Any surplus must be recorded in the following financial year as an additional item in the endowment fund; the deficit, on the other hand, constitutes an item of obligatory expenditure in the next budget, and will go towards the reduction of the appropriations.
Article 8 determines, limited to the years 2014-2017, the revenue that will have to flow annually into the endowment fund of the Union, which will be made up of: a) the fees paid annually by the members; b) a portion of the income connected with horse racing bets, which must be paid monthly by the Autonomous State Monopolies Administration (AAMS); c) proceeds deriving from the transfer of television rights; d) a portion of the «single tax levy», not exceeding 4 per cent of the single tax levy (PREU) accrued in the previous year (the law also specifies that the coverage of this transfer of tax levy to the League is ensured by the «major income accrued annually", in relation to entertainment and amusement devices and devices); e) in full, the taxes deriving from all the public games carried out within the racecourses, for the marketing of which the Customs and Monopolies Agency will have to intervene, which will have to define, by 1 March 2014, the operational efficiency guidelines (in game distribution, venue standards, number of machines); f) 50 per cent of tax revenues deriving from the introduction of bets with cash prizes on virtual events, similar to horse racing.
Article 9 envisages the adoption, within two months of the entry into force of the provision, of a decree of the director general of the Customs and Monopolies Agency for: a) the management of horse betting through the establishment of a unique totaliser; b) the review of criteria and methods for managing and allocating resources, deriving from tote games and bets, according to the parameters established therein; c) the application, on the annual collection of fixed-odds bets, of a single tax and a levy intended for the Union, equal to 1.5 percent and 3,5 percent respectively of the total annual net collection.
With article 10 it is envisaged that starting from 1 January 2014, the shares of tax and non-tax revenue deriving from public games with cash prizes originally intended for 311 to UNIRE, referred to in paragraphs 281 and 282 of article 1 of the law no. of 2004 (financial law for 2005) are destined for the Union. Starting from 1 January 2018, the contribution envisaged by article 8, paragraph 1, letter d) is abolished.
Finally, article 11 provides that the competences and the carrying out of the technical-horseracing activity of the "saddle" area, already attributed to the agency for the development of the horseracing sector, and then transferred to the Agricultural Dicastery, are attributed to the Italian Federation of Equestrian Sports (FISE)".
