state of the nation italy
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The media and political attention to the racecourse became nonexsistent, and racing through much of the 1970s and 1980s was largely ignored
The beginning of the end
And just to make things worse, the governement dealt a final killer blow.
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www.internationalthoroughbred.net
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In 1942 the state more precisely defined UNIRE’s roles and allowed it to delegate out to third parties specific tasks related to the organisation of breeding, racing and betting, but over which the Ministry for Agriculture still maintained overall control. Things to a large extent went on uninterrupted until the end of the 1980s. The fact that racing never appeared as even a miniscule percentage on the balance sheets of the nation’s rampant economy meant that, rather than rectify things, racing was overlooked by those who could have done something. No big racing festivals or big weekends such as Galway, Arc weekend or Royal Ascot were established and marketed with an aim of drawing in the high-level investors, politicians and celebrities. The media and political attention to the racecourse became non-exsistent and racing through much of the 1970s and 1980s was largely ignored – for the worse. The first major signs of crisis started to emerge in the 1990s with the advent of digital broadband, which led to a major reduction in betting income. And although the government acted, it did nothing to improve the situation. The 1996 Bersani Decree reorganised betting outlets in a bid to increase income from sporting bets, but in doing so did away with the roles of Ministro delle Politiche Agricole Agricole e Forestali Ministry for Agriculture and Forestry (MIPAF) and UNIRE on the Government’s Gaming Committee, meaning that new bets were introduced without any consultation from those within racing. The direct result was the closure of 1000s of small family-run betting shops and, of course, reduced betting income for UNIRE.
Under a government decree in 1998 UNIRE was restructured and the management of the Tote was passed from UNIRE into the hands of the Ministry for Finance. Betting licences, concessionaries and outlets were all put out to public tender, and another new decree was drawn up for the management of TV rights. In one fell swoop UNIRE lost control over its primary source of income. It is by no means a situation unique to Italy that, from sophisticated online poker championships to simple scratch cards bought at the supermarket checkout, fewer and fewer people started choosing to bet on racing. Any why is that? Admittedly, it is part of change in culture that is being experienced
in Italy and worldwide, but racing in Italy is coming from a poor position from which to market itself to the wider public. In England all the main daily newspapers carry at least some racing news and racing cards (although there have been issues with that) and the BBC will interview AP McCoy after winning the Grand National. For those people whose livelihoods do not revolve around horses and for whom racing is on the periphery of their life, it is still accessible. If they so choose, they can still find enough information to have a flutter now and again or follow a particular jockey or horse without too much difficulty. The task for those racing authourities is to convert this wider public into race fans. In Italy the main racing daily is available only by order or in one of only just a handful of kiosks in the major cities, which you have to know about and go looking for first thing in the morning. For the main daily newspapers, as for the terrestrial TV channels, racing simply does not exist. Racing in Italy never crosses the radar of the average person. So how do you go about attracting new owners, new fans, new punters, create an event, draw crowds and raise awareness from zero? Two years ago racing came to a standstill Slots really are becoming mainstream entertainment in Italy and most coffee shops now will boast at least one machine