Tombolata della Befana as gambling? So it seems for some
Can you imagine that a bingo between children and parents is considered illegal gambling? Normally not, but that's what happened to an event organized in Turin to celebrate Epiphany together.
THE FACT
It is a rather funny case (or perhaps it would be better to say "singular") what took place in Turin on 10 January last, when in Piazza Barcelona a tome organized by the Casa del Popolo Estella was hosted to offer children and parents a moment of fun that could also have a relaxing role after a Christmas substantially different from all those precisely because of the pandemic, and this above all for children.
It all started by reading Alice's steps in Wonderland's passes and giving them sweets and candies as in the best tradition of Epiphany, moments of peace then followed precisely by a free bingo For which the first prize consisted of a bottle of sparkling wine, in some fairytale books and in a canvas shopper to 'pack' everything.
So far everything describes a pleasant and positive event made to grant happy hours to children and parents, an event faced by another respecting all the current anti-assembly and protection rules for Covid-19, but his epilogue but really left everyone with open mouth: The conclusion of the day arrived at the hands of the Carabinieri and Municipal Police who arrived following a complaint by a district councilor (for the same admission of the police).
The result? Two minutes: one from $ 400.00 for assembly and failure to comply with anti-covid rules, a second that risks reaching $ 10,000.00 (starting from a minimum of $ 1,000.00) instead made to sanction the organization of what the authorities have defined to be in all respects unauthorized gambling.
Clearly a particular situation that the organization accepted as a "spite" by someone annoyed by a moment of shared joy that does not seem to have gone down: explanation that in any case it is useless to face the legal implications to which the intervention of the police inevitably widened the doors.
Reactions
The choice by the organization was decidedly pragmatic: the report of $ 400.00 for the infringement of anti-assembraining standards was recognized and paid despite being underlined that Everyone were equipped with a mask and kept at a regular safety distance, a choice explained with the desire not to appear as a non-Mask denialists, a definition too strong for which (according to the organization) it was worth paying the due to not create doubts.
The choice is different for the report on the illegal gambling that was instead chosen to challenge and contest A loud voice basically for two reasons: the first is merely economic, given that the established penalty would be unsustainable for a non -profit organization, while the second is completely conceptual and linked to the inaccessibleness of the definition of illegal gambling (normally used For clandestine biscchee) when the reality of the facts is that of a simple bingo between parents and children.
To support the incorrectness of this provision, it was also underlined how the folders of the game (completely similar to BINGO, to understand) were not on sale as well as the prizes up for grabs were completely symbolic, not in cash and above all offered by sponsors who simply wanted to support the goodness of this Christmas initiative.
What will happen now? The answer naturally will arrive over time when the dispute will be managed, with the hope of meeting a reasonable judgment that can take into consideration the true nature of the game in question and the context in which it happened.
Our conclusions
For our part, we can only hope that everything is resolved in a simple and painless way for the organization, above all hoping that this "accident" does not go to to create a precedent that penalizes similar situations in the future.
However, what remains is a little surprise in thinking that a bingo for children can even be nominally nominally been equivalent to a gambling situation, mostly illegitimate and prohibited by law.
