This is a change at the top of the association that came out of the blue like a tsunami on a hot July 19 while everybody was preparing to go on holiday, and which, with the violent impact of an event that has come out of nowhere, looks like presaging the end of any hopes for consultation and for a change of policy by the association in safeguarding its member operators.

Entrusting to a lawyer the leadership of an organisation aimed at representing its members clearly demonstrates that it will only be possible to pursue claims for the rights of a category through specific and pondered appeals through the courts, orchestrated by expert and well-tested legal professionals.

Within the aims of the new government decree signed by Minister Bersani, of which there is no doubt that it is detrimental to traditional operators, there are provisions to restrict the location of machines just to specialised collection points, the collection of bets by the storekeeper, the responsibility for the game to the dealer (and there won’t be enough places for all the dealers) and the control of all operations by Amministrazione Autonoma dei Monopoli di Stato (AAMS), the Italian State Monopoly Agency, and by Sogei.

The provisions also include the assurance of a prepayment of the tax unique to the handing over of a magnetic card containing the corresponding credit, and which can be recharged with the winnings.

This is a programme that has been announced and introduced two years after the start of a new system, which has severely reduced the availability of legal machines, intended solely for amusement, that are innovative and of interest to a market for players of 18 years and younger.

What will be the end of the automatic sector? What will happen to Enada, ProGameShow and everything that does not originate simply from a reform or a political directive, but is the result of investments and work that can be ascribed exclusively to the Italian AWP sector?

Negro and the committee at the head of Assotrattenimento have given an example. This is no longer a time for personal aggrandisement, nor one for waving flags of trade associations. If there is still a chance for the future of companies engaged in the production, sale and running of AWPs, it will only be seized by bringing the diverse participants of the sector around a commission of experts, entrusted with the future of a trade that is not, and never will be as described in the documents issued by the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Potenza.

Printer friendly version

Email this article to a friend

Bookmark this

---