Rome to bar slot machines

The Mayor announced that they presented a motion to ban the gambling machines from the city.

Italy.- Virginia Raggi, Rome’s Mayor, announced that her anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) presented a motion to ban slot machines and other gambling activities from the capital.

Raggi said that she doesn’t want Rome to be similar to the biggest gambling cities in the world. “Enough of the Las Vegas effect,” she added. The politician confirmed that they deposited a resolution last week concerning the regulations of slot machines in the Italian city. “It is an important initiative, aiming to protect residents’ health with knock-on effects for safety, road access, noise pollution, decorum and public peace in the city.”

The resolution wants to regulate gambling activities outside Rome, and the draft provision says that slot machines can’t be located within a 500m radius of sensitive sites such as schools, churches, ATM machines and sports centres, with the intention of protecting minors. The motion also states that there will be a modification on operating hours and the introduction of stricter penalties if someone doesn’t follow the rules.

Banning gambling activities has been a pending subject for Italy in the last couple of years, and M5S has been trying to clamp down the activity following the concern about addiction among certain sectors of the population including children and unemployed.