Calabria is one of the regions that spends the most on online gambling: the report in the “Black Book of Gambling”, edited by CGIL, Federconsumatori and Isscon
PERHAPS we are led to believe that people bet more where incomes are higher. If you look at the maps and diagrams you discover that it is exactly the opposite. Calabria is one of the regions that “invests” the most in gamble online. Even though the three provinces at the top of this unpleasant ranking are Sicilian, with over 3,200 euros for each resident aged 18-74 in 2023, Reggio Calabria and Crotone are immediately after. Reggio is sixth, Crotone tenth.
As regards the provincial capitals, the ranking opens with the incredible record of Isernia, which in the space of a year went from a remarkable 2,686 euros in 2022 to a good 4,143 euros per capita in 2023 (age class 18- 74 years old). A short distance away we find Crotone and Reggio Calabria, then the Sicilian trio made up of Syracuse, Messina and Catania.
These are the most striking data, from a Calabrian perspective, scrolling through the pages of the “Black Book of Gambling”, edited by CGIL, Federconsumatori and Isscon (Institute of Consumer Studies), a preview of the Agency’s report of Excise Duties, Customs and State Monopolies which contains the data that will be disseminated through the “Blue Book 2023”. Data that can be explained by the fact that the gaming business has long been sniffed out by the mafias. In the first part of the per capita collection ranking for 2022 are all the regions of the South.
Obvious differences, data opposite to those of physical gaming (in the ranking of played games per capita various northern regions are identified in the top positions), which can only be interpreted with «the choice of the mafias to use legal online gaming as a way of money laundering of dirty capital (an activity also widespread in other economic sectors characterized by strong irregularities, such as construction and public businesses)”, observe the analysts.
The data is impressive. We are talking about a total collection of 84 billion in 2013, rising to 136 billion in 2022 and 150 in 2023. In ten years the collection has grown by 78%, while the money lost by Italians, almost 22 billion in 2023, has grown in the same 30% period.
Ten years in which there were also two years of pandemic (which led to the temporary closure of activities) and a heavy economic crisis, which significantly reduced the purchasing power of wages.
But how much is 150 billion in collection? The enormity of this figure may be overlooked but we must realize that it is equivalent to 89% of Italians’ food expenditure, equal to 5 times the amount of the 2024 budget law, while health expenditure in 2023 amounts to 131.1 billion.
And what do the 22 billion lost in gambling by Italians correspond to? «It is as if the net annual income of over 1,100,000 full-time workers, of good level and seniority, with a net monthly paycheck of around 1,500 euros was completely eliminated».
Let’s come to the case of online gambling. 82 billion will be raised through online gambling during 2023; there were 49 in 2020. In four years the growth was 67%. During 2023, every Italian between the ages of 18 and 74 (the range in which almost all players are concentrated) “invested” 1,926 euros in gambling.
There is more gambling in the South, therefore. In the most depressed areas of the country. Campania, Sicily and Calabria broke through the barrier of 2000 euros played online per capita in 2023 (in Calabria the figure for 2023, in particular, is 2037 euros). Molise, Puglia and Basilicata will probably exceed their limit in 2024, according to forecasts. The citizens of Veneto and Trentino Alto Adige play online, per capita, a third of a third of what is played in Campania. In the South and in the Islands, people spend exactly double on gambling compared to the North.
Data which, according to the report, can be explained by the fact that a significant portion of legal online gambling can clearly be traced back to the use of this channel by mafias as a way of laundering money of illicit origin. The conservative estimate is 16-18 billion, 20-22% of total online gaming. The “convenience” is that of every 100 euros played, on average 94 euros are returned to the player, compared to around 70-75% for physical games, so “online gaming has probably absorbed part of the recycling exercised in the past”.
Not just mafias though; part of the anomalies in the gambling numbers can be traced back to the opacity of some economic sectors, where the circulation of black capital is frequent; in this sense “the construction sectors (with the multiple opacities of 110%) and tourism should be examined, with attention to the significant sums generated by irregular tourist rentals”.
But there is another phenomenon to highlight, in the dizzying growth in remote gambling numbers; and it is “the irruption of new consumers, who more than others feel at home on the Internet: young people”.
What to do? “The world of gambling has never been so strong, and the voice of those who oppose the pervasiveness of gambling, its ever-increasing extension in society, has never been so weak or obscured.”
Federconsumatori and CGIL reject the recent legislation on online gambling, passed by the current Government, while concern is growing regarding the rules announced on physical gambling. « Rules are announced which, in the name of uniformity of rules for entrepreneurs sector, would effectively eliminate the role of the Regions and Municipalities, reducing to a minimum the constraints placed on settlements, location and opening hours of gambling venues. It would be – it is said again in the report – a real cleansing of years of attempts to contain the effects of gambling, on the work of many associations, of the Church, of many public health workers, of schools, of thousands of local administrators” .
But there is another aspect. Gambling represents an element of maintenance, if not acceleration, of social inequalities. The report cites a number of studies showing that the effect of income on spending on gambling is greatest among working-class, less educated families living in Southern Italy. Paradoxically, rates of gambling are higher among low-income groups than among high-income groups.
