Prime Minister Edi Rama’s speech at the today’s Parliament session on the closure of slot machine parlours, betting shops and all other forms of sports wagering including via online sites:
Convicted of murder, of causing injury, operating illegal gambling operations and a series of other criminal records;
Convicted of kidnapping and causing injury;
Convicted of criminal property damage and production, or illegal handgun possession, or explosives;
Convicted of international drug trafficking;
Convicted of exploiting prostitution;
These are some of the official personal files for the gambling and sports betting companies. These are figures from a world that has little or nothing to do with the law and the society’s progress in a business that had been transformed into the boundless space of unlawful profits until 2013.
Just as the chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Economy and Finance pointed out, it is untrue what has been massively and loudly trumpeted everywhere throughout this period, that the gambling madness has thrived, meaning it has taken bigger proportions, after the nationwide campaign dubbed “The End of Madness”. This is not true. This is not what the facts say, this is not what the figures say.
Quite the opposite is true as 5 000 illegal gambling and sports betting shops operating at the time, hundreds of slot machine parlours were operational at that time and transactions of hundreds of millions were carried out of all regular and law channels at that time.
What we are doing today is the right response on behalf of a society seriously affected by this disease-causing phenomenon and which has spread a social cancer across the territory of Albania, exactly because the territory has been out of control of the single hands that guarantee this activity in the vast majority of normal countries, where this activity is exclusively on the state’s hands.
We have been all here in the Assembly Hall when we made the first attempt to ban the electronic casinos. At that time, the betting shops were not part of our debate and we are all – at least those present at the Hall during our first term in office – aware of the fact that we failed to vote unanimously at that time and a bad compromise was reached – and this is the reason why, together with Erjon Braçe, for the first and hopefully last time, I broke the voting rule in compliance with the Parliamentary Group decision – to postpone the closure of casinos until end of December of that year.
What happened meanwhile?
In the meantime, it became all clear that the decision had been incomplete. Gradually, based on a lot of data and many shocking facts, we became fully convinced that sports betting should also be banned along with the electronic casinos so that this story ends once and for all.
Around 68% of active gamblers have engaged in some form of gambling by the age of 10 to 15. This is a sufficient argument to convince everyone that this decision is not a decision of the Socialist Party for the Socialists, but it is a decision, where no reason in the world, but madness would hold the opposition out of this hall today.
It is a decision that brings tremendous and multifaceted benefits. It is extremely helpful to protect children.
Helpful to protect the family.
Helpful to protect the economy.
It is a massive blow to organized crime, right at its core and one of its most active sources, and it is helpful to ultimately cut off one of the most powerful sources of organized crime funding.
Some 73% of gamblers admit – and we are talking about Albania with higher figures on gambling addiction than the average in other countries – experience stress and the gambling problems affect the functioning of family and intimate relationships. There is no need to look into these figures especially in the suburbs and the country’s provinces to find out the gambling addiction rate. To get an answer, it would suffice asking women, girls and parents. It is not a coincidence that this decision, like no other decision made by Albania’s polarized politics, enjoys the backing of around 70% of the population and over 92% of Albanian women. This is a decision going beyond all the differences of politics and everyday political or social debate in Albania.
The findings of a survey on this matter show that one in four gamblers has contemplated suicide at least once and around half of the gamblers admit that their family life is a mess and a constant stress to lie, hide betting tickets and such a situation randomly ends in scandals and divorce.
Something that was left out this debate is what the mayors of smaller towns or cities claim. A considerable number of men and boys from families under social welfare benefit scheme are mostly the regular costumers of the betting shops in towns across the country. The economic assistance payment is thrown into gambling.
This is the reason why we should strengthen the law on social assistance in two main directions. First to ensure that no men receives a single penny of the social welfare payment that should be provided only to women. This is written on the law as an expression of good will, but we need to explore ways and ensure it is women the one to withdraw the social assistance payment since the law is unfortunately not working. On the other hand, a law is needed to ensure that someone refuses to take an offered job twice, he should be denied the economic assistance and unemployment payment and that he won’t be allowed to register as jobless jobseeker in the coming month, but only in the coming year. This cat-and-mouse game should end.
An exemplary result has been achieved this year as we have exceeded the employment target of finding job placement for 25 000 jobseekers through the National Employment Service. But this number should grow more. But many jobseekers turn down a job offer, receives the unemployment and economic assistance and registers as a jobless jobseeker to receive the payment again in the coming month. He refuses to take up a job, but when someone turns down a second job, just like it is the case even in Sweden, known for its generous social benefits, where an individual is denied the social benefit when he keeps on refuses to take up a job.
The Minister of Finance and Economy highlighted some other aspects related to our approach towards the number of people who will remain jobless with the closure of gambling activities in general. A new program is being developed and next year will mark an important transformation in terms of job seeking in a bid to adequately address the ever increasing need and demand for skilled labour force. In this aspect, the people who will lose their job from closure of gambling will be entitled to receive benefits.
In few minutes, there will be the moment of truth about the spoken defamatory statements repeatedly issued by the huge trash right behind the Assembly building and spread then from a trash to trash, and portal to portal and then disseminated by all sort of characters to confuse the people by trying to convince them that other intentions hide behind the decision on closure of gambling and betting parlours. I have seen people placing bets on some of strangest games, including dog racing, horse racing, even rooster fighting. I am sure they would have been also placing bets on half-rooster fights, if such games were not banned and the Democratic Party would be the unquestionable winner of the race who issues more defamatory statements in shortest time possible. No one would ever compete against the goals, no free kicks or penalties of defamations made by the Democratic Party. But the unanimous vote of the Socialist MPs will clearly show who the absent MPs are.
The latest claims suggest that Edi Rama is adopting this decision to draw attention. We are waging frontal war to crack down on a criminal industry along with the anti-organized crime package, but according to the opposition we are doing this just to attract or deflect attention.
But what is that thing we are seeking to deflect attention away from?
Where is the attention focused on?! On the so-called Babale story? This one is no longer on the TV screens. The citizens are no longer watching carefully this opposition’s directed soap opera. Are these things we are seeking to deflect attention by dealing with issues that, according to them, are not a big deal. The political commentators also question our decisions?
What are we doing?
We are doing what nobody has done over the last 20 years. We are waging a frontal war with the evil entrenched deeply in our society over the years and which is extremely difficult to overcome. And since the crime thrived during my and Erjon Braçe’s era, I challenge them to mention a single name from all these individuals and personages starring in these “narcotics-babale series”, a name that was became famous in the world of lawlessness after Socialist Party took over the government.
These groups have been structured and organized years ago. The truth is that we have no time to waste by dealing with the opposition claims, but I want to recall what happened in the 2009 general election.
The candidates in the 2009 general election used to make phone calls with certain individuals – as the phone calls thing has turned into a campaigning craze – while prisons opened their doors. In the 2009 general election –Paulin Sterkaj and every other MP who were involved in the election campaign back then know this quite well, but I mentioned Paulin because we together were engaged in efforts to protect people from these individuals – the prisons opened their doors. This is not what we have claimed, but it is a fact that has been reported to the Department of State by the U.S. Embassy. Dozens of criminals were given permission to leave prison for a week and do what they did in various regions of the country back in 2009. At that time, we had established a group to protect the vote. From whom we protected the vote?
We protected the vote and voters from the huge pressure exercised on them by these incriminated individuals, who were released from prison to campaign together with the then Justice Minister, the Interior Minister and other cabinet members. This is the truth.
To conclude, no slot machine parlours, no betting shops and none of all other forms of sports betting including via online sites will be allowed in the territory of the Republic of Albania. What we are actually doing together with the working group tasked with this law implementation starting from 1st of January, in addition to a readiness to close any of these units across the territory of the country, we also plan to set up a digital team to shut down and prevent access to any online betting site abroad. I mean, a major share of money and revenue traditionally generated by the gambling industry have never ended in the Albanian economy, but have been wasted on sports waging via foreign online sites across the world. We will do whatever it takes to shut down any online gambling sites. Technically it is not easy at all as these sites change their codes constantly, but we will set up the respective team that will monitor them around the clock. They might keep changing sites and codes and we will keep shutting them down.
This is the naked truth that the Socialist Party’s vote will confirm.
Thank you very much and I would like to express deep respect for each and every one of you, and the members of the Committee on Economy and Finance in particular, who underwent a period of stress with disturbing messages of all kinds and those who have orchestrated or ordered these messages, from within or outside prisons, we are giving our response by voting now for a definitive ban on gambling, whereas other consecutive answers they haven’t imagined in their worst dreams will follow in the future.
Thank you!
* * *
[Prime Minister Edi Rama intervenes during examination of the articles of the draft law] During the discussion stage at the Committee on Economy and Finance, the draft law has improved by stipulating that only five-star hotels and tourist resorts will be allowed to apply for a casino. I believe that the proposal to further increase tax on gambling is the right one as it ensures a reasonable participation of the public through the tax benefit from luxury game, so to say. So, I fully agree that the proposal becomes integrated part of the new fiscal package when forwarded to the Parliament. This will set a clear and consolidated standard based on best international practice.
