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ITALIAN RACING
directly involved in the industry is now at risk; there is no estimate available for those indirectly involved such as feed merchants, pharmaceutical suppliers and specialist clothing manufacturers. Why? Betting. TV rights. Attendance figures. Prize money. Fuel. Sound familiar? Let’s turn the clock back to January 1999. Roberto Borroni, then Deputy Minister for Agriculture, outlined to parliament the unrest in racing circles that has led to the protests of recent weeks. He emphasised the need to restructure UNIRE [Unione Nazionale Incremento Razze Equine – Italian Jockey Club] to streamline its management and reduce its bureaucracy. He recalled the decree passed in April 1998 to reorganise all forms of betting relative to horseracing in such a way that UNIRE could benefit from the subsequent increases in revenue from this, its principle source of income. Under this April ’98 decree the management of the Tote passed into the hands of the Ministry for Finance, there was to be a public tender for betting licences, new betting concessionaries and outlets, and a new decree drawn up for the management of TV rights. He also outlined the minor changes made to taxation on the betting system made law in December 1998. At this point Stefano Losurdo (politician belonging to the National Alliance party, later elected to the Senate of the Republic) responded. His hope
was that “l’ippica italiana” would not be viewed by the government as a group of rich gentlemen with precious little to do all day. Rather that the racing industry would be viewed as just that, an industry that forms an important part of the Italian economy and provides jobs for countless Italians. Indeed he even suggested that the government renounce their portion of the “take” on betting income from racing in light of the emergence of so many new forms of gambling that are pulling punters away from racing and thus depriving it of vital funds.
Losurdo continued that in his opinion the government had ignored this sector and turned a blind eye to its problems. Instead, it had promoted the so-called “high-risk” forms of gambling and favoured them in their legislation reforms, to the detriment of traditional betting (A quick look at gambling websites shows just how much gambling legislation has been liberalised in the last two decades here). Losurdo stated that these newer “high-risk” gambles did not necessarily require any subject knowledge or judgement call, neither did they have entire families employed behind the scenes, nor did they allow multiple winners on any given gamble. A small number of winners collects a large sum of money with little or no skill being involved. The reader can draw his or her own comparisons with a dual forecast on a 17runner card during the Cheltenham Festival. Now let’s turn the clock forward to autumn 2008. In ten years, none of these problems has been resolved satisfactorily; instead, all have come to a head again at a time when the global economy is in total turmoil, banks are being bailed out, investors’ lack of confidence has left the stock market showing more red than black, the property market is in decline, high street retailers are announcing profit slumps; in short, the word “recession” seems to be no longer a headline to grab attention, but a reality. Following the 1998 crisis, that led to strikes and protests similar to those taking place right now, UNIRE had been “reformed” to turn it into a self sufficient government body with at least €400 million in its annual budget in order to enable it to, and I summarise from the original decree written into Italian law, organise, Minister of Agriculture Luca Zaia (left) and Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti meet protesters
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