On Tuesday 5 August, I presented to the President of the Council of Ministers, a question requiring a written response. The question relates to the tax evasion of 98 billion euro, (news of which was available in the previous legislature) by numerous concessionaires of the State Monopoly with authorisation to install and manage slot machines.

All the slot machines in existence on the national territory should have been connected to Sogei, while according to the investigation carried out by the Finance Police it has been verified that the concessionary companies have not complied and that a large number of the machines were not connected. Only if it is impossible to connect is there a forfeit tax, but it seems that this exception has become almost the rule and to guard against this behaviour a fine was brought in of 50 euro for each hour of non-connection. Unfortunately it seems that the State Monopoly, that should have been collecting the fines, has never applied the sanctions. Another source of worry is the news that alluded to the fact that some of the companies with concessions are connected to organised crime.

From swift recovery actions and by correctly managing these concessions there could emerge resources to tackle the numerous economic-social issues that relate to the future of the country and the current living conditions of the young, of workers and of pensioners. Unfortunately the government does not see the need to promote timely clarification nor for recovery actions to be put in place to recover the unpaid money.

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