Il gioco d’azzardo in Basilicata. Un fenomeno che coinvolge bambini e adolescenti

The turnover of gambling in Italy reached 111 billion euros in 2023, as re ported by the Customs and Monopolies Agency, to which about 33 billion in illegal bets should be added. This results in a total business volume that exceeds 7% of the national GDP. When compared to other expenditures, this figure is not reassuring. Every year in Italy, 160 billion euros are spent on food products, 128 billion on health, and 52 billion on education. This highlights how deeply rooted the phenomenon is in the cultural fabric of our country. About 18 million Italians gamble at least once a year, while active gamblers are around 4 million. Basilicata is a small region (with about 580,000 residents) with an average per capita income of about 24,000 euros. The average annual per capita ex penditure on gambling is 2,100 euros. This demonstrates how widespread and ingrained the phenomenon is in the social fabric of Basilicata. This chapter reports part of the results of a research project carried out by ENFOR in Basilicata and promoted by the Piano Regionale Gioco d’Azzardo Patologico 2017-2018. Here, data from a quantitative survey are reported, 70 il gioCo D’azzarDo in BaSiliCata focusing on the volume of gambling and territorial differences between the Lucanian provinces of Matera and Potenza