The minister of Consumption, Alberto Garzón , has announced its interest in regulating the advertising of bookmakers, both on television and in other media, because it considered that currently there is no limitation to these contents, and may generate pathological gambling, which “is a public health problem” in which the Government has to intervene with measures that will be announced in two or three weeks. “The theme of the advertising is in chaos. It is the law of the jungle,” he said on Sunday evening in an interview on The Objective of The Sixth.
Garzón ensures that the money for these ads has risen exponentially in recent years, up to eur 300 million. A advertising that “attracts many people and can lead to create extreme problems such as pathological gambling”. It has also recognized the problem of minors: “In the game face-to-face, in the houses of bets, the control is absent because a minor cannot enter into a zone where it is legalized, but immediately goes to the area illegal without that as soon as you have control,” he said.
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The holder of Consumption, estimated that about 200,000 people may have disorders related to the game or game problem and reminded that they are “thousands of families” affected since, “in extreme cases”, there are people who “bet impulsively and lose up to 20,000 euros and ruin families”, a situation that, to his knowledge, “it is necessary to address”.
The minister pointed out that will talk with everyone, including the operators and enterprises of the houses of bets which may be in accordance with a regulatory framework”. “There will be measures taken unilaterally,” he said. Despite the fact that part of the skills of the game are arising to the autonomous communities, the holder of Consumption explained that “much can be done” and that will work with the regions to resolve “a problem that affects neighborhoods and the working class.” “There are gaps and there are mechanisms to coordinate,” he said.
Among its challenges as the new minister of Consumption, it also has set the fight against junk food, a “crucial area” in which it is “studying” a possible tax, but also an improvement in the labelling to allow the consumer “to know if what they eat will harm seriously the health”. To this end, his department will coordinate with the Ministries of Health, and the ecological Transition, as to try to reduce the consumption of plastics.
