Italy's growing gambling industry risks claiming half a million young addicts, the health ministry said Monday in a call to limit advertizing. "We must rally public authorities, including mayors, to acknowledge the disease and monitor advertizing, above all to protect children," said Health Minister Renato Balduzzi. The plan includes requiring ads to follow guidelines similar to cigarettes, which must list the risks associated with the product. "Banning gambling is out of the question. The state cannot become an ethics monitor," said Balduzzi. "But it can set up guidelines, incentives and disincentives for gambling with ad hoc means".
Balduzzi is drafting his initiative with Cooperation and Integration Minister Andrea Riccardi, who last month called for a ban, or a limit, on adverts by gambling-sector companies. In 2011, the industry raked in 79.9 billion euros in Italy.
Online betting, which tripled in 2011, is growing the fastest, as gamblers spent 1.5 billion euros on the Internet last year.
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