Mafie e gioco d’azzardo

Abstract

The article investigates the role of mafias in the gambling sector in Italy. The gambling sector is a field of business that has recently undergone radical and decisive changes, affected above all by a process of accelerated legalisation that has made it one of the most dynamic legal gambling markets in the world in terms of volume of money gambled. Although gambling has become legal, the demand for illegal gambling services has not definitely disappeared. In the article we first reconstruct the business chain of the gambling industry, identifying both the most relevant aspects of its recent development and the various actors working in this business sector. Based on some judicial documents, we then offer a picture of the role of the mafias in the gambling sector, focusing on the aspects that most attract mafia interests or make it vulnerable to predatory action by mafias. Finally, we present a particularly significant case study of the action of an entrepreneur close to the mafias in the field of gambling activities relying on the consultation of court documents and interviews with qualified witnesses. The emerging picture highlights how the criminal rise is being combined with the process of “regulated opening” of the gambling market, which is being transformed relatively quickly from a black market to a fully legal one.