The government of Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi has announced that gaming halls in the country will remain closed until a further review scheduled for the first week of April.
Draghi was sworn in last month following the collapse of the former DP-5Star coalition government. He has promised to be tough in his approach to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, and decreed that all casinos, betting shops, arcades and bingo venues will remain closed for now, continuing the year-long closure.
Last month, Italy’s gambling trade unions staged public protests in Milan and Rome imploring the government to end the shutdown, which put 150,000 people out of work and indirectly affected the incomes of 400,000 other families. Industry leaders urged Draghi to lift venue restrictions in provincial “yellow zones,” where viral infection rates are low.
According to SBC News, the group Legal Gaming Workers also slammed the former coalition government for keeping a sector that contributes “€4.5 billion (US$5.4 billion) directly to Italy’s treasury in the dark.”
According to the Guardian newspaper, Draghi, known as “Super Mario,” has pledged to speed up vaccines and said his first duty was to “fight the pandemic by all means and safeguard the lives of citizens.”
Italy has seen more than 94,000 death from Covid-19, the second highest level in Europe after the U.K.
