With an Open Letter addressed to Mr Giuseppe Conte, current (and former) President of the Council of Ministers in Italy published on one of the most important Italian sports daily Corriere dello Sport, the remote gambling association “LOGiCO – Lega Operatori Gioco su Canale Online” called for remedies for the remote gambling sector.
This letter underlines the heavy impact on the remote gambling licensed businesses of the recently introduced gambling advertising and sponsorship ban coupled with an increased taxation. These provisions affected the remote gambling industry as well as the economics, directly and indirectly, of the related media companies, sport clubs and cultural organizations which obtained sponsorship from gambling licensees in Italy until now.
But the main worst effect is that it is undermining the national remote gambling legal framework with a relevant lack of access and knowledge of the legal remote gambling offer, a loss of State revenues and presumably an increase of social costs due to gambling addiction.
LOGiCO states it is “…a paradox that the last Government introduced a blanket advertising and sponsorship ban for gambling instead of valorising the regulation of the remote gambling sector as set forth in Italy” which was taken as an example by other EU Member States willing to legalise gambling activities offered remotely – and instead of implementing the EU recommendation dated of July 2014 setting principles for the protection of consumers and players of online gambling services and for the prevention of minors from gambling online.
Remote gambling should be considered a form of entertainment and the result of a legal and responsible offer.
LOGICO reports that the National Health Institute epidemiological study published in 2018 states that only the 5.5% of gambling adults gamble online and only 19,3% declared to gamble because of advertising. The focus point should be therefore the “quality of the communications, …, in gambling as well as in other sectors…”.
The letter concludes with a call for remedies for which the Association is already ready to help.
Please download the full letter in Italian at the link here below.
http://www.assologico.it/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Lettera-aperta-al-Presidente-del-Consiglio-Giuseppe-Conte.pdf
