“No to slots, yes to a good book”. This is the campaign against gambling launched in Sassari by the Municipality and the municipal police to stem a phenomenon that, in 2023 alone, led Sardinians to spend over 3.7 billion euros.
This morning, in the spaces of the former Quattro Colonne cinema, the mayor Giuseppe Mascia and the commander of the Locale Gianni Serra reported on the contents of the initiative that will involve about twenty venues throughout the municipal territory with some window stickers, with the words "No slot", inside which there will be books.
"The municipal police," explains the mayor, " gave a gift of a bookcase as a sign that in bars, instead of playing video poker, you can open a book." At the same time, Mascia reminds that in the city there are specific rules for the use of slot machines. "The VLT rooms," specifies Commander Serra, "can be open from 10 to 13 and from 18 to 1 in the morning. The places that have video poker devices can keep them on from 10 to 13 and from 18 to 23."
Strict rules against gambling addiction whose tentacles also tighten Sassari. "The problem is present in the city," continues the mayor, "and it is in a way that worries us, especially with the new generations but also for those with a higher age. To combat it, we need controls but above all social education." Among the participants in the initiative is the Quattro Colonne bar managed for a few months by Valerio Picconi and Siria Manca.
"We don't want slot machines," the first one reports, "because we are interested in having a clean environment."
