Gambling: spending on the rise in small Italian municipalities

In the North, of the 113 small municipalities mentioned above, eight are in Lombardy, four in Veneto, four in Piedmont, three in Emilia-Romagna, two in Friuli and one in South Tyrol. In the south, however, Campania has twenty-three municipalities in the most critical category, with an average of over 3,300 euros per capita spent on online gambling; Basilicata and Calabria follow with figures exceeding 3,100 euros; Sicily, Puglia and Molise bring up the rear, remaining above 3,000 euros.

The top spot for money spent on gambling goes to Baia e Latina, in the province of Caserta. With a population of 1,973, the municipality recorded almost 150 million euros in online gambling, equivalent to over 102,000 euros for every resident aged between 18 and 74. The vast majority (96 per cent) of this volume comes from the Betting Exchange, defined by the study as ‘the most opaque form of gambling, one in which the players themselves act as the bookmakers, one that generates little tax revenue and which is widely cited as the perfect vehicle for illegal dealings and money laundering under the guise of “legal” gambling’.

Joining Baia and Latina are the municipalities of Polaveno, in the province of Brescia, with 22,955 euro per capita; Mairano, also in the province of Brescia, with 11,430 euro; Francavilla in Sinni, in the province of Potenza, with €21,928; Nociglia, in the province of Lecce, with €11,854.

The study calls for one thing above all: transparency. Figures on this scale ‘raise questions about the origin and source of these financial flows, about the parties generating them, and about the reasons why such huge volumes are concentrated in such small areas. These figures must be verified; we must follow the money and take action’.

The research, in fact, takes a strongly critical stance towards the Government, accusing it of ‘turning a blind eye’. Whilst citizens are increasingly exposed to the ‘social and health consequences of gambling’, the public system ‘makes it difficult’ to accurately gauge what is happening on the ground. Deciding whether to continue ‘protecting the interests of the gambling industry or protecting people and communities’ is, above all, a ‘political choice’.

For this reason, the Isscon Foundation, Federconsumatori and CGIL are calling for: ‘An immediate end to the withholding of information, with the publication of complete and disaggregated data on land-based and online gambling for every Italian municipality; systematic investigations into the source of funds channelled into online gambling, starting with betting exchanges and poker; significant restrictions on the provision of gambling services and strict compliance with existing bans, starting with the ban on advertising; and the granting of genuine regulatory powers to local authorities within their own territories”.