Italy: Why ‘playing slot machines’ is no game

Why ‘playing slot machines’ is no game

by Claudio Tamburrino - 02.20.2014

 

In Italy, a group of workers in the gambling industry has proposed that the word ‘ludopatia’ should not be used. It’s a term meaning ‘compulsive gambling’ that is derived from the latin verb ‘to play’. In an open letter the workers suggested using the word ‘azzardopatia’ should be used instead. Their appeal stated: “For some time, in our country, we have been confusing certain concepts, which now need clarification. Because words are important, and when they change, our perception of the world also changes.”

The problem they highlight is that people often confuse the two very different concepts of playing and gambling. To underline this distinction, the group are calling for a new term, arguing that very different activities can be described by the word ‘gioco’ (‘game’ in Italian, as in ‘gioco d’azzardo’, or gambling). These can include children’s games and board games or mathematical games, erotic games, Olympic Games and role-playing – until you get to gambling.

Yet it is the latter (due to increasingly omnipresent slot machines or various forms of the lottery) that causes addictive behaviour. Even though the official Italian term is ‘gioco d’azzardo patologico’ (pathological gambling), the word ‘ludopatia’ is now used in common parlance and the media. This word, with its suffix ‘ludo’, can be easily associated with harmless activities, such as ‘ludoteche’, or ‘games parlours’. It’s therefore better to use a term that reflects the risk and danger of gambling – and ‘azzardopatia’ fits this bill.

This isn’t just about semantics. The word ‘ludopatia’ taints an entire category of games, players and workers in a sector that doesn’t have any negative effects or could actually have some educational value. Friedrich Nietzsche once said: “A man’s maturity: that is to have rediscovered the seriousness he possessed as a child at play.” And as Spartaco Albertarelli, games designer and journalist, underlines: “Play is the tool that enables humans to interact directly with their own imagination, through a system of rules which need to be respected.”

As regards Italy, however, one shouldn’t forget that gambling addiction is a big problem: 800,000 people (or 4.3% of the population) are at moderate risk, while 250,000 are at high risk. It is an issue, moreover, that involves the state directly. It makes considerable revenues from gambling, with taxes on slot machines and betting, the costs of the licensing and fees that have to be paid to the administration of state monopolies, which operates, for example, the national lottery. Just in the period January-October 2012, the state earned a total of about €70 billion, while in 2013 this reached almost €100 billion.

On the flip side, the state also pays for services associated with rehabilitating addicts and related healthcare costs, as well as the resulting social problems. Addressing the problem is therefore a priority for the entire country – but despite this, tax in the sector is among the lowest in Europe.

There have been intervention initiatives at the municipal and regional level. The war on compulsive gambling started in Pavia, a city that holds the record for number of slot machines (one for every 110 inhabitants) and gambling addicts (denizens of Pavia bet on average more than €2,000 a year). There have been several initiatives so far: including tax incentives for bars without slot machines, which comes from the regional council of Lombardy. And the proposal from some mayors in the region of Emilia-Romagna to establish a one-time fee on gambling. That, however, was rejected by the government of Enrico Letta.


http://www.west-info.eu/why-playing-slot-machines-is-no-game/