The council group of Forza Italia-UDC-Nuovo Psi and that of Le Biccherne signed the document to the mayor and the competent councilor
SIENA. The Forza Italia-Udc-Nuovo Psi and Le Biccherne council groups presented a question that addresses the phenomenon of gambling addiction, defined as gambling addiction.
The question, signed by councilors Lorenza Bondi and Marco Falorni for Forza Italia-Udc-Nuovo Psi and by Silvia Armini, Michele Cortonesi, Francesca Cesareo and Leonardo Pucci for Le Biccherne, states that “the issue of pathological gambling represents for years now a phenomenon with profound impacts on various layers of the population” and “that the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, given its growth, has also dedicated a specific toll-free number to which in 2023 almost 5000 calls arrived which, from 2021 to 2023, saw an exponential increase of 88.5%.” The document also recalls “that, again according to the data, 83% of users who are victims of gambling pathology are represented by the male population and that gambling addiction, also in Italy, has had the clinical and legal recognition of gambling disorder by risk, therefore becoming an element that undermines the psychological stability and intellectual clarity as well as the economic stability of those who become victims”.
But it is not only the victim that the councilors focus on: it is highlighted, in fact, how gambling addiction has repercussions on the community, that is “a social cost given that around 200 centers for the treatment of gambling addiction have been opened throughout the national territory, at within which gambling sufferers are taken care of” as well as on the families of gambling victims who “find themselves sucked into a vortex that affects, sometimes heavily, family budgets”.
The question, addressed to the mayor and the competent councillor, aims to investigate the numbers of the phenomenon of pathological gambling addictions and therefore asks “if the numbers of the phenomenon of pathological gambling addictions can also be found in the Municipality of Siena and what are the tools most used for the same purposes (slot machines, scratch cards etc.)” and finally, he asks “if the Municipal Administration of Siena has undertaken monitoring and prevention actions in order to mitigate the social discomfort created by such actions including any discussions/collaborations with associations operating within the scope of psychological addictions”.
