The dealer always wins

2023: the facts.
In May there was a devastating flood that hit several cities in Emilia Romagna. For weeks the opening news of the news and the front pages of the newspapers have treated the issue, shaking public opinion and raising awareness. There has been talk of humanitarian aid for the people on the streets, reconstruction, the hydrogeological risk that grips our country, urgent interventions of various kinds.
The response of the Government there was with the dlgs n.61 of 01/06/2023 which, among other things, defined in article 21 paragraph 4 the possibility for the entire 2023 to add weekly draws of Lotto and Superenalotto, whose income would be donated to the countries affected by the climate tragedy.
For those who do not know anything about Superenalotto it is important to specify that every week there were already 3 draws, which have now become 4 with the addition of the Friday draw.
So we can say that the money for emergency interventions aimed at citizens of a region of our country comes in part from the National Gambling. But this news, as you can imagine, has not been found in the most famous newspapers. As often happens, over the months we have forgotten about the citizens and the cities flooded.

2024: the facts.
The Government in these cases is very careful; in the Decree Milleproroghe has maintained the provision on the further extraction of the Superenalotto throughout 2024. This time, however, we talk about a fourth weekly draw whose revenues will be donated to the Fund for national emergencies, so we talk about a more structured in time.
“If you bet, save our country!” they seem to want to tell us…
The news also in this case have spoken very few.

Considerations:
In 2022 the economic movement around Gambling in Italy amounted to 140,000,000,000 euros (one hundred and forty billion euros); these are official data of the Agency of Customs and Monopolies (ADM).
In 2023 it seems that the numbers are definitely growing.
In practice, the economy of our country is based at least partly on Gambling, so increasing revenue in this sense is a priority for the government.
In every measure of this kind we talk about an increase in weekly draws also to counter the spread of illegal gambling…
So the goal is not to play less but to play more “legally”.

Concluding questions:
Is anyone worried about the consequences of this?
Has anyone ever heard of Pathological Gambling?
Has anyone ever been in a public service?

2009: the facts.
The story just told is not original, it has a very significant precedent. With the dlgs n.39 of 28/04/2009, the so-called “Abruzzo Decree”, was extended the offer of “legal” games, such as instant lotteries and slot machines. The city of L’Aquila in recent years has been renamed as “the city of slots” and Abruzzo has become the region with the highest level of ludopathy.
Dlgs No. 39 was approved following the earthquake of 6 April 2009. Again, that aid to earthquake-stricken citizens would come from the new national lotteries, little was known.

Post Scriptum:
I know, I am anachronistic, I start talking about these things just in the days when they told us that we had to think and read only about the Sanremo Festival.

Walter Di Mauro