While the new decree prohibiting games advertising is published in the Official Gazette, doubts on the form and substance of the law multiply.
"Banning gambling advertising is a historic step of great cultural value", according to
Luigi Di Maio, political leader of the Movimento 5 stelle, as Minister of Labor and Economic Development, as well as the author of the provision. Also for this reason, the law has been welcomed by the associations fighting against gambling spread.
On the contrary, the world of sport (through, for example, the Serie A football league, or that of basketball) is against it, recognizing how such measures, besides not being "really effective" to control addiction, causes "great concern" for the effects on the teams that risk losing important sponsorships. With consequences "for the employment and development" of Italian sport and its satellite activities and "for the risk that it increases the use of illegal gambling".
So, while the decree has not yet entered into force (but will do so soon), there is the
debate between those for and against and the first doubts start to rise, not only on the real need for such a measure - and, above all, on the real urgency - but on the real application, due to difficulties in implementation and effectiveness.
WHAT THE PROVISION STATES - This is a total ban (we remind you that the provision provides for the prohibition of "
any form of advertising, even indirect, of games or bets with money winnings, made in any way and on any media, including sporting, cultural or artistic events, television or radio broadcasts, newspapers and magazines, publications in general, billboards and internet." And, from 1° January 2019 the ban is also applied "to sponsorship of events, activities, programms, products or services and to all other forms of communication of promotional content, including visual and sound quotes and writing the name, brand, symbols, activities or products whose advertising, under this article, is prohibited".
THE DOUBTS ON THE WEB - In short, no gaming brand will be able to appear anymore, in any way or in any media, as happens with cigarettes. The first doubts arise here. First of all, because of the obvious
impossibility of effectively controll the web channel, given that all the practical difficulties in limiting internet communications are well known to all. And gaming operators know very well, especially those operating online - as well as the regulator - how difficult is to block the web, given that Italy (that time as a true avant-garde) had thought to limit the spread of illegal gaming websites allowing access from Italy only to authorized websites, "blocking" those not connected to any concession, introducing the famous "black list": but we know very well that this is a useless and difficult activity, given the continuous proliferation of websites spreading from page to page and server to server, systematically avoiding every control. Despite the extraordinary success of blocking illegal gaming websites (considering that there are billions of illegal access rejected and, therefore, potential frauds foiled), it is clear that those who want to continue playing online, can find the way to reach these illegal portals, which continue to exist. Also because of the fact that it is almost impossible to find the authors of these offers and eventually pursue them from Italy, taking into account the complex bureaucracy of our country and at an international level, more generally. However, even moving away from gaming world, the difficulty - if not, in fact, the impossibility - to block the web is clear also thinking about the streaming offer of sports events, which happens for years in a completely illegal way, violating the international agreements on Tv rights, and which can not be contained.
Despite dozens of hearings, in Italy and abroad, several seizures, and many changes of servers and domains, allowing illegal channels to continue to exist, operate and collect. In spite of the laws that prohibit this practice in any case, also providing for heavy penalties, but without being able to apply them.
THE DIFFICULTIES ON TV - And speaking of sports and Tv rights, moving from web to Tv, the other great anomaly that the government will have to manage - as well as Agcom, the authority responsible for control and provision of penalties - it is that of football matches and sporting events in general. Since such a ban, related to games advertising, exists only in Italy,
what will happen when our televisions will have to broadcast football matches where the stadiums will be surrounded by bookmaker or online casinos advertisements? Of course, it is clear that Italian companies can't sign agreements to appear on that event, but since many companies (moreover, the majority at least for what concerns the online) are international ones, if we think, for example , in a Champions League final held for example in the United Kingdom, there is nothing to prevent to a British bookmaker to buy spaces at that event. But that event will be broadcast all over the world, including Italy, where that advertising would then be displayed, thus giving benefits to that bookmaker, who will also be present in Italy.
This, in theory, should result in a penalty for the television that will broadcast the match, according to the current formulation of the new Italian law. That will create two possible scenarios: the first, is the total collapse of the value of those television rights in our country, with all the consequences of the case. The second one, perhaps more easily conceivable, would provide for the classic "Italian solution", according to which the tv should nevertheless boradcast the event, even knowing that it will receive a penalty, possibly increasing the costs of advertising space to compensate for those losses under the law. Also for this reason, many thinks that the measures provided for the Dignity decree are harmful or useless. Without a third possibility. Even assuming the total pointlessness compared to the inclination to gaming of the Italians, which can already be seen by looking at the live streaming of sports events (no Italians stopped watching the games from illegal websites, which, on the contrary, have had a increase in visits after many users knew them by reading in the newspapers the seizures of the websites, immediately replaced by others), or the one repeatedly cited in these days of cigarettes: whose consumption has not decreased at all after the total ban of advertising provided by the laws.
AND RESPONSIBLE GAMING? - Coming back to the dignity decree: the current text provides for exceptions. "National lotteries with delayed drawing and logos on safe and responsible gaming of the Agenzia delle dogane e dei monopoli" are excluded from the prohibition. If, in the first case, we can understand that the exception of some lotteries is linked to the low addiction component of the games, as far as the "logos on safe and responsible gaming" of the Agenzia are concerned, further specifications will be needed. To avoid to exclusively include logos created by the Monopoly (this would mean to only publish the logo of the classic "guidance" of safe gaming?) and perhaps including promotions in general, inviting users to safely and responsibly bet. Unless we also want to avoid the forms of "public service announcement" used in many other sectors and generally also directly promoted by the various ministries to protect citizenship. But in this case, it would be a real paradox. Certainly not the only one, and certainly not the first one, but nevertheless a paradox.
URGENT DECREE, OR NOT? - Among the various anomalies of the dignity decree and, in particular, as regards the rules on advertising, there are also some about the method. In particular, with respect to the time of introduction and issue of the decree. The provision was approved more than ten days ago by the Council of Ministers, by decree: a law that can be directly approved by the Council of Ministers and enter into force without going through Parliament, which must however confirm it
within 60 days, otherwise it shall automatically lapse. But strangely after more than ten days from the approval, the decree has not yet been published in the Official Gazette, so it has not yet entered into force. Without even having arrived, until a few hours ago, at the General Accounting Office of the State.
According to the Huffington Post newspaper, the reason is due to the fact that, in reality, the text of the decree would not be ready yet, because it is still without the whole part of the technical report. As we can guess from the latest statements by Minister Di Maio. But it is not the first time that a provision is presented to the Council of Ministers without having been completed, as the government of Matteo Renzi taught: but never more than ten days have passed. Also taking into account that the decree laws can be used only "in extraordinary cases of need and urgency", according to the Constitution. And the fact that so many days have passed would seem to betray this principle. In the meantime, however, the Chamber has already decided that the analysis of the provision will begin on July, the 24th. But opening other fronts, already found in the headlines of the newspapers, given that in the meantime new sponsorship contracts have been signed, especially in the world of football (for example, Lazio and Roma have just signed an agreement with two different bookmakers). For another issue to be solved and disciplined by the government, leaving to imagine changes to the basic text approved by the Council of Ministers. Although Di Maio continues to exclude any changes and even any possibility to talk with the supply chain. Despite the increase of the treasury withdrawal on entertainment machines was included in the latest formulation of the provision: another critical issue for the industry, but also a further topic to be discussed in Parliament, with a view to procedural legality.