Italy's Renzi presents plan to slash slots in anti-gambling move

On Thursday, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s government presented a plan to slash the number of slot machines in the country by a third by the end of 2017. But it will take more than that to roll back the €88-billion ($97-billion) industry, which has exploded since an aggressive deregulation 15 years ago led to a proliferation of slot machines and video lottery terminals in coffee bars and other public places across the country.

The government’s bid to reduce the number of slot machines—there are nearly 400,000 in the country, one for every 125 Italians, more than double the penetration in the U.S.—comes at a time when Italy, struggling to control its deficit, would be hard pressed to replace potentially billions of lost tax revenue. It also echoes an increase in gaming regulation in a number of countries, mostly aimed at protecting gamblers.

The easy access to slot machines has helped drive a rise in addiction, with almost one million heavy gamblers in Italy, according to anti-gambling advocacy groups.

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Italians spend an average of almost €1,500 a year on gambling, more than residents of any other large country, according to games-industry news agency Agimeg

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Soon after 66-year-old pensioner Agostino Lacriola retired, he was ensnared in a gambling addiction that led him to consider suicide many times after he drained his savings and sold his house and belongings to raise funds to feed his habit. The addiction began in 2007 with a €1,000 win on a scratch card and mushroomed into daily bets on soccer games, horse races and lotteries. But very often, he said, it was Italy’s ubiquitous slot machines that gave him his quickest fix.

“Everywhere you go you’re always passing a place where you can gamble,” said Mr. Lacriola, who beat his addiction with the help of a support group. “Sometimes still today I’ll be in a coffee shop waiting to pay when I hear the noise of a slot machine and I get out of there as fast as I can because I’m afraid of falling back into the addiction.”

The government’s aim to cut the slot machines is fraught with challenges, however. Along with video lottery terminals, they account for 50% of the nation’s gambling revenue of more than €8 billion a year—a figure that has quintupled in 15 years. That revenue stream is hard to forgo in the face of intense pressure on public finances.

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Moreover, the gaming industry, which has already fought hard to block municipal and regional restrictions, is battling the cut

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The association representing the slot-machine industry acknowledges there are too many machines, but says other types of gaming, such as the state lottery and scratch cards, should also come under the ax.

Tired of waiting for Rome to come through with promised limits on slot machines, Italian towns and regions over the past several years have restricted opening hours, lowered local taxes for gambling-free businesses, and mandated minimum distances from schools, churches, senior centers and hospitals.

Milan’s 500-meter minimum-distance requirement, introduced in 2013, will make 96% of the city into a slot-machine-free zone once current contracts on the machines run out over the next several years.

“We had no choice but to try to curb gambling ourselves because all recent governments have used people’s desperation as an ATM,” said Viviana Beccalossi, a councilwoman for the Lombardy region, of which Milan is the capital.

Some bar owners are skeptical cutting back on the number of slot machines or limiting access hours will have much of an effect when there are so many other ways to readily gamble in Italy.

“You can bet as much as you want every five minutes, and you tell me it’s going to do some good to take away the slot machines?” said Salvatore Russo, who runs a bar in central Milan with several slot machines. Nearby, a flat-screen television broadcast a new set of winning lottery numbers every five minutes.

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Moreover, some worry that illegal gaming will take the place of legal betting

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“There is too much money involved for organized crime to stay on the sidelines if it isn’t possible to gamble legally,” said Raffaele Curcio, head of the slot-machine industry lobby.

Antigambling advocates have called on the government to sponsor more education campaigns on the dangers of gambling. Meanwhile, in Chiuduno, a small town about 40 miles northeast of Milan, a middle school based a part of its math curriculum on teaching children the mathematics of gambling including the very low probability of winning.

“You can’t just tell kids gambling is bad,” said Alessandra Agliardi, a math teacher in Chiuduno. “You have to show them it’s basically impossible to win.”

Pensioner Mr. Lacriola learned that lesson the hard way as he kept losing and eventually turned to a usury racket for funds to play.

“I thought I was the only one who had been through this, who had lost everything,” said Mr. Lacriola. “Then I entered the support group and I realized this is a sickness and I wasn’t alone.”