Yes to betting sponsors for football clubs

Eliminate the ban on sponsorship by betting companies: this is one of the points of the draft resolution on the prospects for reform of Italian football that the Senate Culture Committee is preparing to approve, and then send to the government.

Approval, we learn from centre-right parliamentary sources, could come in the session called for 2 pm, preceded by a meeting of the restricted committee. The measure, whose rapporteur is Paolo Marcheschi, of FdI, is the result of a long series of hearings.

As the same sources explain, the resolution is shared by the majority, while the opposition, in particular the M5s, does not agree with the elimination of the ban on sponsorship by betting companies.

Gambling, Assoutenti 'government wants return on advertising'

The government is trying to undermine the 2018 Dignity Decree and reintroduce gambling advertising during football matches and sporting events. Assoutenti reports this, recalling that today the Senate Culture Commission will vote on a document on the prospects for reforming Italian football, which includes the cancellation of the ban on gambling and betting advertising during sporting events.

The Dignity Decree, Assoutenti recalls, prohibits any form of direct or indirect advertising for gambling "on any medium, including sporting, cultural or artistic events, television or radio broadcasts, daily and periodical press, publications in general, billboards and IT, digital and telematic channels, including social media". "The government, however, has decided to go in the opposite direction by proposing a measure aimed at increasing the earnings of football clubs to the detriment of citizens - denounces president Gabriele Melluso - If reintroduced, in fact, advertising for games and bets will guarantee around 100 million euros in revenue each year for Serie A teams alone, but will cause health costs for the community for billions of euros, considering the public spending of the State for citizens who develop gambling addictions". "Allowing advertising for betting and games during football matches and sporting events is equivalent to pushing a segment of the public, especially the younger ones, towards gambling addiction, an immoral, senseless and very serious choice that we will fight against in every place" - concludes Melluso, who recalls that on the issue there is a complaint from Assoutenti to Agcom against alleged illicit gambling sponsorships by Inter and Atalanta, teams linked to the LeoVegas company.