Complex budget for the pure entertainment sector, which is waiting for the research of Roma Tre University to dispel some “false myths” .
What year was 2018 for the amusement sector? Certainly a complicated year, as the operators in the sector also point out. “Unfortunately it was a complex year, first and foremost because of the confusion. Ignorance about the sector, determined by political and media demagogy, generates uncertainty that immobilizes investments and inhibits the market,” says Franco Sorte, founder and member of the board of directors of the Fee Consortium (Fa family Entertainment Expo). “I’m thinking, for example, of Emilia Romagna and the prohibition of under 18s to pure entertainment devices. How can this situation not destabilize the customer? With what state of mind can professional choices be made in such a context? It is evident that
In this scenario every future perspective and planning can only be polluted by fear, with all the economic consequences of the case”.
What do you want at the political level?
“Serious political interlocutors who are willing to approach the issue with a technical approach, entering into the matter: that is all we are asking for. We are for rules and regulations, as long as they are general from a true knowledge of the sector and not from demagogy that responds to electoral bias. We also hope in Euromat, the European federation of gaming operators. The hope is that, also thanks to its support, we can create uniformity of regulation in Europe and Italy will conform to the European scenario. The fragmentation that is generated in our country, where the Region emanates, the Municipality blocks and creates the stalemate, kills the septum king. We need clarity, perhaps Europe cannot be a polar star king in this sense”.
As an association what are the projects to be carried out?
“As Fee Consortium we are very much aiming, always with the aim of that transparency so much desired by paragraph 7, on a research project, promoted by us and Sapar Service, with the collaboration of New Asgi, which will come with a doctor from one of the most prestigious academic reality ita liane, the university of Roma Tre. It will be an important opportunity to clear the field of false myths, inaccuracies and demagogies. All to the advantage of a productive sector that represents Italian excellence, but also and above all of credibility and healthy fun. We believe so much in the fun we represent, the pure and simple one, without money winnings, that we think that far from representing a danger to health, is indeed a true antidote to gambling. Healthy entertainment, which cheers children, young people and their families, improves leisure time, gives motivation and keeps them away from unhealthy passions. We only have to see what science will say about it, precisely in the name of the approach that we propose and that we hope in the legislator”.
The worrisome place
“The situation in the regions is increasingly worrying, year after year we are witnessing new regulations that each time incomprehensibly unite us to gambling, not least the new draft law of the Veneto region entitled ‘Rules on the prevention and treatment of gambling disorder’ of September 14, which prohibits minors eighteen the use of gaming equipment referred to in Article 110, paragraph 7,” says Vanni Ferro, taken tooth of the association New Asgi.
“Once again a copy-paste regulation, dictated by ignorance of even the most elementary fundamentals of knowledge of Article 110 of the Tulps. As in Emilia Romagna where initially they had forbidden to minors also games for children, kiddie rides and table soccer, today also in Veneto inserting all paragraph 7 letter A and 7 C Bis they want to prohibit minors redemptions, video games (driving simulators, dancers), cranes, which have nothing to do with gambling.
There is in fact no justification for restricting the use of the equipment referred to in paragraphs 7 A and 7 C bis of Article 110 Tulps, to minors under 18 years, as equipment and devices for lawful gaming, without monetary winnings, with pure recreational entertainment and based solely on the skill of the player.
There are several studies that show that pathological gambling is a problem that affects forms of gambling cocon cash winnings. In reference instead to the alleged ‘dangerousness’ of ticket redemption, there are no scientific sources to support this thesis. Our association, together with Consorzio Fee and Sapar Service, has commissioned U Università Roma Tre to carry out an independent research that can scientifically represent the sector and that will study in detail the potential negative effects of minors using games without winning money.
New Asgi, together with Fee and the University of Rome 3 has participated in the technical table of the observatory of the Emilia Romagna Region, where we presented the projects and we have recorded the vote against the document proposed by the Region, our associations and also other associations present representing the world of commerce, tourism and entrepreneurship. In the past few weeks we have forwarded to the Emilia Romagna Region the request for a hearing for the Board Committee to present, also to the political side, the important study that the University of Rome 3 is carrying out independently.
There are many regulatory demands that we would like to address to all the governmental bodies, but first of all there is a need for knowledge and conscience to legislate with knowledge and not to ride the easy wave of ‘gambling’ in a generalist and demagogic way. We ask everyone to wait for the results of the first and only study of an important third party, which will finally define the real ‘dangerousness’ of gambling without winning money and, only afterwards, in the light of the results, in all awareness, the policy can calmly and objectively give the right answer to the needs of all, first of all the consumer, then the producer and also the manager, and everyone for his or her own competence must and can finally operate in a clear and legitimate way in compliance with a serious and competent regulation.
In our opinion this is the only way to restart our sector, which needs clarity, transparency, to be able to share and not suffer the measures that are taken at all levels on our heads. Only simple and clear rules, born from the objective knowledge of the sector, can guarantee the future of our companies, today condemned in an anarchic limbo where every entity in an absolutely subjective way and without analysis applies its own dictates.
We therefore hope to meet, in the next appointments with the regions and other bodies that are currently legislating, technicians and politicians who want to take first awareness of our sector and only then finally find a serious solution shared by all”.
Inquiry by Michela Carboni
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