The Emilia-Romagna region of Italy has confirmed its rules prohibiting ticket redemption to minors.
The regional law has just been approved by the Health Policies Committee.
The text approved by the commission, which will now have to return to the council for final approval, introduces the obligation for operators to display posters that indicate the prohibition of ticket redemption for minors.
There is also an obligation to visibly post a notice on each device that their use is forbidden to those under the age of 18.
Furthermore, managers must verify the age of the client, except in cases where the age is clear. If they are underage, they must not sell them tokens or give them prizes derived from winnings. Violation of these rules will result in fines.
"Prevention starts with the youngest: with these provisions we further strengthen our commitment to opposing and reducing the risk of gambling addiction, starting from the most vulnerable, weakest people. And, since we are dealing with minors, our strongest hope is that parents do their part and are our allies too," said regional councillors Sergio Venturi (health policies) and Andrea Corsini (tourism and trade).
"We are facing a phenomenon that affects all ages in a transversal way, and that we continue to fight: both from a health point of view, with investments of over €7.4m for treatment, and prevention of addictions allocated by the 2018 – 2019 fund for pathological gambling, both with incentives to businesses joining the 'slot free ER' brand. And in this regard, in 2018 we doubled the contributions, which went to €300,000, allowing us to approve 30 projects from Piacenza to Rimini."
According to populist regional councilor Andrea Bertani, regional leader of the Movimento 5 Stelle, the planned measures would still be "too permissive."
"It is necessary to better specify how managers should prevent minors from using the machines, effectively prohibiting the game from being allowed to [the] underage," he said. "Given that the tokens for ticket redemptions are the same used for normal games without prizes, how will the owners of a bar or an arcade prevent minors from playing the machines if they don't have the obligation to carefully monitor the actual use? This is why, in our opinion, this is a too permissive resolution. This is why we voted in the commission and will monitor very closely on its real application in businesses."
