Shocking Flash Mob in Italy - 368K Euro of scratch cards wasted by gambler

[bitbollo]

https://www.giornaledibrescia.it/cronaca/gratta-e-vinci-per-368mila-euro-in-strada-il-flash-mob-per-sensibilizzare-sulla-ludopatia-lrkixlzv

An association that fights against gambling addiction https://www.gliacrobati.it/ has decided to carry out a very particular initiative.
They placed 368 thousand euros of scratch-cards (used and non-winning) collected by the same gambling addict!

In Italy for years a whole series of advertisements have been broadcast which highlighted this "winning is easy" aspect.
On the contrary, there is a large portion of the population that has literally been ruined, consider that in Italy it is FORBIDDEN to advertise casinos/or activities related to gambling on radio/TV etc...

What are your thougths?
Do you think these initiatives are really useful?
The national government, after having publicized these activities in an extreme way, should propose "recovery" activities to prevent other people from falling victim to gambling addiction?

[davis196]

I can assume that this gambling addict had enough money to keep buying all those scratch cards.
Will this initiative help in fighting gambling addiction? I don't think so. Most hardcore gambling addicts wouldn't care about such initiatives.
Most gambling addicts have the "I will make a huge win and this will compensate all my loses!"" mentality, which is kinda delusional.
I agree that all those "winning is easy" gambling advertisements are misleading as f*ck. In my country, the government owned national lottery is being advertised on TV with the same "wining is easy" ads, which is totally annoying. Sports betting TV ads are also allowed, but I think that this will change soon and there will be a ban for gambling ads on TV/radio.

[LFC_Bitcoin]

Gambling addiction is really unfortunate, like any addiction it can ruin lives, both of the gambler but also the family connected.

It doesn’t matter how much money the gambler has, rich or poor it’s really sad to see lives negatively impacted. There is help out there though and all good casinos / sportsbooks promote responsible gambling.

[acroman08]

What are your thougths?
Do you think these initiatives are really useful?

maybe for some, I mean, seeing how much money has been spent on all those non-winning tickets, some could realize that it is not worth it, but then again, gambling addicts aren't really just gambling so they could win.

The national government, after having publicized these activities in an extreme way, should propose "recovery" activities to prevent other people from falling victim to gambling addiction?

this could be helpful, "recovery" activities could help gambling addicts that are looking for help could benefit a lot from this. they should also make an effort to spread gambling awareness to the youth, they are the future and the more they get educated about the topic the more they know how to handle it.

[danherbias07]

My wife does love scratching cards and every time we go to the mall she always urges me to buy her some. I will spend like $10 on it and let her enjoy it. I don't know why it is addictive but it's totally a BS game. Once I tried to scratch and won triple the amount of the card price. I stopped after that and enjoyed the money. It's just a simple game to release boredom, so that dude might really have a great interest in scratching.

Anyway, I don't think this will work. Most scratch cards are legalized by the government, here in our country those are actually crafted by a branch of the government itself. Regarding addiction, I'd rather play other games than that one. The fun in it was too short-lived to get addicted to it. Even if they use that as means to fight gambling addiction, I don't believe many people will listen.

[swogerino]

Scratching is one of the most addictive lotteries not only in Italy but anywhere in the world that they use them,of course most countries don't apply such lotteries while in countries that do apply them you will see even 80-90 year old men and women play them like they are buying apples or oranges every day  .No matter what kind of initiatives someone takes or some organization they won't be useful at all as people will still buy them for the simple reason that they give you an instant result if you have won or not and this is very difficult to fight.There are other type of lotteries which are easy to fight because they are going on once a week or once a month in TV but no scratch ones is super difficult to stop no matter what you do.

[SmartGold01]

Anyone who is a gambling addicts doesn't just gamble for gambling sake but they gamble for a possible chances with the mentality and mindset that the more they gamble the more they get closer to their winning days but guess what? This is not helping matter at all cost, instead and what should be at the moment people would tends to criticized them at which their family are one way or the other being affected for their silly addictive behavior of their child who is a gambling addicts. Yeah, the gambler may seems so simple and the money waste might not be much important to him because maybe he had some other places that could fetched him such huge amount of money to gamble on a scratch card, and that could be his risk level if I may understand correctly.

[Porfirii]

https://www.giornaledibrescia.it/cronaca/gratta-e-vinci-per-368mila-euro-in-strada-il-flash-mob-per-sensibilizzare-sulla-ludopatia-lrkixlzv

An association that fights against gambling addiction https://www.gliacrobati.it/ has decided to carry out a very particular initiative.
They placed 368 thousand euros of scratch-cards (used and non-winning) collected by the same gambling addict!

In Italy for years a whole series of advertisements have been broadcast which highlighted this "winning is easy" aspect.
On the contrary, there is a large portion of the population that has literally been ruined, consider that in Italy it is FORBIDDEN to advertise casinos/or activities related to gambling on radio/TV etc...

What are your thougths?
Do you think these initiatives are really useful?
The national government, after having publicized these activities in an extreme way, should propose "recovery" activities to prevent other people from falling victim to gambling addiction?

Dear bitbollo, the image in your OP was broken and I have taken the liberty of uploading it to TalkImg.

I didn't know that it was forbidden to announce casinos in Italy. In Spain, rules changed a few years ago, and they can only be advertised after 1:00 AM if I'm not wrong. The result is that, if you turn on your TV at that time in the night, the only thing you'll see are casino commercials and gambling programmes.

On the other hand, about the news itself, first I thought that the cards weren't used, which would've been a real waste of money, although the news would've been much more meaningful. Already scratched tickets is still something curious, but a bit disappointing.

[Marvelman]

This effort to show folks all those losing lottery tickets seems like a good idea to me.  Showcasing that giant mountain of 368,000 euros worth of worthless scratch tickets gets the point across for sure.  It's a rough sight.  Makes it crystal clear that for every winner there's a whole bunch of losers.  I'd bet it could serve as a wakeup call for some individuals struggling with excessive gambling and  seeing the sheer volume of losing tickets right there in front of you reveals an unfortunate truth thats often ignored or downplayed.  Might actually convince certain people to think twice before they blow their money on the next draw or bet.

[Lida93]

I know some persons may not agree with this initiative been useful or helpful in eliminating gambling addiction in those municipalities that the campaign is being carried out, in as much as some persons may share that thought it's noteworthy that at least such initiatives are been carried out in curbing the increasing rate of gambling addiction. With a practical show of the rate of loss tickets as evidence on the street some gamblers could have a mind shift about their perspective on gambling even though some hard-nuts won't still give a damn.

I believe a small number of lives will be positively touched by the initiative especially for those addicts that have been on the look for support service of this nature they can pick a message from those number of lost ticket compared to those with a win.

[Coin_trader]

What are your thougths?
Do you think these initiatives are really useful?
The national government, after having publicized these activities in an extreme way, should propose "recovery" activities to prevent other people from falling victim to gambling addiction?

They are just stating the obvious. I think everyone playing scratch cards knew how low the winning percentage but they keep playing not because it’s easy to win but rather for a chance to win.

Doing this movement is just pure loitering or unintentionally promote gambling if a non gambler saw it and becomes curious. As a gambler, this kind of initiative will not gonna work because I knew what risk I’m taking. It’s my money so they should just fuck off and focus on other problem that needs attention like global warming etc.

[o48o]

https://www.giornaledibrescia.it/cronaca/gratta-e-vinci-per-368mila-euro-in-strada-il-flash-mob-per-sensibilizzare-sulla-ludopatia-lrkixlzv

An association that fights against gambling addiction https://www.gliacrobati.it/ has decided to carry out a very particular initiative.
They placed 368 thousand euros of scratch-cards (used and non-winning) collected by the same gambling addict!

In Italy for years a whole series of advertisements have been broadcast which highlighted this "winning is easy" aspect.
On the contrary, there is a large portion of the population that has literally been ruined, consider that in Italy it is FORBIDDEN to advertise casinos/or activities related to gambling on radio/TV etc...

What are your thougths?
Do you think these initiatives are really useful?
The national government, after having publicized these activities in an extreme way, should propose "recovery" activities to prevent other people from falling victim to gambling addiction?

Correct me if i am wrong but from what i gather that's a blanket ban for all forms of gambling adverts, although reason that law exist is to be combatting black market gambling.

Since licenced gambling is still legal in Italy. So how does that work? Why couldn't they just approve licenced gambling sites and set huge penalties for unlicenced so they wouldn't be worth a risk for the platform to allow them? Even if people wouldn't know the difference between legit ads and unlicenced casinos, surely Italian sites could be forced to do double check what they are allowed to advertise.

[GxSTxV]

The only thing the government should do is create more awareness and centres to help fighting addiction, you can’t forbid people from gambling, especially nowadays where accessing online casinos became so easy, decentralized or regular casinos are available in Italy for everyone. This type of gambling in a shape of scratch cards is more addictive and more used by people since it’s available and tempting for everyone to just buy a card today then the next day, until an addiction comes out to hit that person that use to spend only a dollar for the card up to his savings and selling his car, house and more shocking stories.

This initiative can be helpful and also create an awareness on how much useless cards that gambling companies creates without giving back any money to the gamblers, probably only 20% of the sold cards would be put as a prize, more people sees this more people gets aware and stop wasting money for such activities. Personally, I prefer to bet on sports knowing the chance of winning than buying a card with 1% chance of winning back something very small.

[Casdinyard]

First off, what the fuck is that "winning is easy" bullshit, are they really out there forcing the general public to gamble and ruin their lives? What the hell is going on in Italy for fuck's sake.

Also, much better if they show more graphic and true-to-life effects that gambling addiction could bring some people. Gamblers ending up in jail for crimes they committed out of the desire to further finance their gambling addiction, people resorting to drastic measures in the name of gambling and revenge gambling, lives and families ruined because their main providers' succumbed to the glamour and glitz of the casino, with nothing to bring but shame and sometimes even abuse to their families.

It upturns my stomach to learn that Italy, is really going so far as to convince the otherwise gullible general public to gamble more, instead of shedding light on how dangerous and downright destructive gambling addiction could be. This movement/activism is definitely on the right path, but sometimes we need to knock some sense into people by giving them some shock value which more graphic depictions of gambling addiction could bring.

[Pidgeon]

Tomorrow in news:
80yo Grandma wins 5 million euros with thrown away scratchcard, buys 1 millions more cards and dumps them on the street!

[lixer]

I can assume that this gambling addict had enough money to keep buying all those scratch cards.
Will this initiative help in fighting gambling addiction? I don't think so. Most hardcore gambling addicts wouldn't care about such initiatives.
Most gambling addicts have the "I will make a huge win and this will compensate all my loses!"" mentality, which is kinda delusional.
I agree that all those "winning is easy" gambling advertisements are misleading as f*ck. In my country, the government owned national lottery is being advertised on TV with the same "wining is easy" ads, which is totally annoying. Sports betting TV ads are also allowed, but I think that this will change soon and there will be a ban for gambling ads on TV/radio.

Well, it won't be possible for him to have it all if he doesn't have enough money, though it does not mean that it was all his personal money is the one that he used to buy all those scratch cards. Maybe some came from his sibs, family, friends, etc.. and worse is he stole the others? (You know addicts).

It's also possible that most scratch cards are only collected by him. I mean literally, like when he sees a scratch card in the gambling shop, he will pick it up. Some people are like this, especially if they have an interest on the same field.

The initiative may not help those hardcore gamblers but it can help those who are still going on that path. Whether you are an experienced gambler or not, it's already too good to be true hearing those "winning is easy" tag line and yeah it's annoying as fck. It's also sad that we can mostly see a change when the damage is already dealt but again, that is better than nothing.