Italy is to press on with plans to open 1,000 new gambling arcades despite mounting national anguish over the spread of pathological gambling in what until recently was a nation of frugal savers. Silvio Berlusconi's last government authorised the new video-poker saloons in 2011. A contest to decide who should get the licences will be held by February.
The non-party government of Mario Monti made a last-ditch bid to suspend the competition by another six months. But a clause inserted in the 2013 budget was thrown out in committee as lawmakers raced to clear the way for the dissolution of parliament on December 22.
Under pressure to boost state revenues and pay off Italy's huge public debts, successive governments have relaxed the country's once-strict gambling laws. The first significant change was in 1994 when scratch-card lotteries were legalised.
But it was not until the mid-2000s that gambling mania really seized Italy. By 2010, according to figures compiled by Global Betting and Gaming Consultants, Italy's per capita spending on betting was the fifth highest in the world, excluding countries such as Monaco, where gambling is a central part of the economy.
Simone Feder, a psychologist and adviser to the juvenile court in Milan, also works with a Roman Catholic church-run refuge in Pavia that caters to, among others, addicts of all kinds. He remembers 2004 as "the year the punters began knocking at the door".
Among those staying at the refuge is Caterina Rossini (not her real name). The wife of a Turin shopkeeper, Rossini describes how she has been reduced to penury by her husband's gambling.
"At the start, he went to casinos and played the lottery. But about 10 years ago, he switched to scratch cards. I'd say things like, 'This month, we don't seem to have as much cash as I thought.' But I had no idea how much he was spending," she says. By the time she found out, his losses were €60,000 (HK$610,000). They had to sell their house to meet his debts.