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European
New casinos. Pizzigati
commission asks
Italy to conform
(Venice casino): “Everyone wants
on historical
them but 2008 closed in the red”
concessions
E
veryone wants them, with tens of petitions and many bills in parliament, but there are no plans for
new Italian casinos yet. After many years of indecisiveness with the four “fortunate” official Italian
casinos (Campione, Saint Vincent, San Remo and Venice) that are regarded enviously, 2008 closed in the
red. A world-wide trend, certainly, in a sector that is feeling the effects of the crisis which in the first two
T
he European Commission has asked Italy to months of 2009 shows signs of continuing: a year which it is acknowledged is going to be difficult for
comply immediately with two rulings passed casinos all around the world. But there is hope that 2010 will see a recovery, as indicated by the research
by the Court of Justice, one of which concerns the carried out by Globalysis Ltd., an American consultancy firm based in Las Vegas, which has consulted
renewal of various licenses for managing horse with the governments of the main countries of the five continents about the future of gaming.
racing betting on Italian soil.
The renewal of the licenses for horse racing • 2008 IN THE RED: The four Italian casinos have recorded takings of 562
betting million euros, representing a decrease of 4%. There were 3.5 million visitors, an increase of 15%. The
On 13th September 2007 the European Court of data from the European Casino Association places Italy in seventh place in the European market which
Justice ruled, in the C 260/04 case, that, by altogether is worth 9.3 billion euros. A market dominated by France, with 2.5 billion in takings and 196
renewing the 329 licenses for horse racing betting casinos across the country which, however, saw takings fall last year by 8%.
operations without opening each of them to “The Italian casinos – comments Mauro Pizzigati, the president of Federgioco and of the Venice
competitive tendering, Italy had failed to meet the Casino - have held up well against the European contenders, but we have concerns about 2009 since
current obligations of Articles 43 and 49 of the EC we are expecting the crisis to affect our market too and there is no certainty that takings will improve“.
Treaty, and that, in particular, it had violated the
general principle of transparency and the obligation • BILLS IN PARLIAMENT: For many years bills have been introduced in Parliament with the aim of
to guarantee an adequate level of publicity. opening new casinos. A ruling received from the government on 25th August 2008, stipulates that in
In 2008 the Italian authority approved a law that Italy at most ten casinos can be opened in the four geographic areas into which Italy is subdivided:
determines that the illegally renewed licenses Piemonte, Valle d’Aosta, Lombardy, Trentino Alto Adige, Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Liguria (area 1);
would be reallocated through a tendering process Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Lazio, Umbria and Marché (2); Abruzzo, Molise, Campania, Puglia,
and that the existing licenses would become Basilicata, Calabria (3); Sardinia and Sicily (4).
inoperative following their reallocation and, in any In particular, the members of the lower house who belong to the Movimento per l’autonomia
case, at the latest by 31st January 2009. The (Movement for Autonomy) have introduced a six-point bill for the reopening of the casino at Taormina;
Commission believes that these regulations would this closed in 1964 after being open for only a short while.
have been adequate to comply with the Court’s At the end of 2008, the senator from Valle d’Aosta, Antonio Fosson, introduced a draft bill for the
ruling. It turns out however that the new license opening of new casinos in Italy “as a function of catchment area“. At the same time a professional
contracts have still not been concluded and that, in register of managers of casinos will be set up and as well as a professional register of croupiers;
fact, the said law has been modified in order to moreover, for the first time, the law will introduce the “requirement for a national contract for
extend their effectiveness until 31st March 2009. employees within the sector“.
Italy’s typical player is male and falls within the 18-19 age group
T
he Istat survey on the use of the new technologies in Italian homes has
highlighted a certain predisposition among families with teenage boys to
use the Internet and to own various electronic devices for entertainment and
communication. Altogether, in Italy, the most common technological items of
equipment are the television set, present in 95.4% of families and the mobile
phone (88.5%). Then come the DVD player (59.7%), video recorder (58.1%),
personal computer (50.1%) and access to the Internet (42%).
And the data about the use of the Internet itself turns out to contain some
very interesting facts. 39.4% of persons aged 14 years and over who have used
the Internet in the last 12 months have been surfing the web to purchase travel
and accommodation, 27.9 % to buy books and 3% to buy articles for the home.
Trailing far behind is spending on lotteries and betting. Only 1.6% of those
interviewed said they went to the Internet to gamble. In 2.3% of the cases the
players are men, while the women number 0.2%. They are mostly young people,
aged between 18 and 19 years (2.6%), those aged between 20-24 number 2%,
2.3% are in the 25-34 age group, 1.6% in the 35-44 age range, 0.8% in the 55-
59 age group and 0.2% in the 14-17 age group.
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APRIL 2009
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