Slovakia activists against gambling

The Initiative Stop Gambling activists needed to collect signatures to help stop gambling in Slovakia, but at least 30 percent of the petition sheets went missing.

Slovakia.- The activists from the Initiative Stop Gambling called on Prime Minister Robert Fico to scrap the duty to collect the signatures to initiate a local gambling ban. They need signatures of at least 30 percent of adults living in a town or village to make the ban possible.

The activists discovered that more than 3000 out of 8000 petition sheets urging the gambling ban in Bratislava disappeared from the city hall, and that’s why they demanded Fico to help solve the problem.

Michal Svetko, Initiative Stop Gambling activist, said that people in Slovakia must spend at least four years collecting petitions to make it possible for their elected representatives to be able to vote on a gambling ban. “If this is fair, then we propose to reverse the rights and duties for the next four years,” he added.

Activists firmly believe that money and mafia practices in Slovakia won’t win, and the people that spent more than 10,000 hours collecting the signatures will be respected. They have been calling for a total ban on gambling for more than two years.

An executive from the Entertainment and Gambling Association condemned the statements that linked gaming clubs to the disappearance of the sheets and mafia practices. “The activists from the initiative obviously have not read a new amendment to the gambling act. It reads clearly that municipalities have been given powers to ban individual gaming clubs or machines if they’re related to disturbance of public order. This can be done without any petition and without any generally binding directives,” she added.