• The municipal Plenary approved this Tuesday a special Plan for the regulation of games of chance

  • In the case of educational centers, the Plan considers a protection coverage of 650 meters

The fight that Platform Stop Bingo and Llefià Bookmakers started in April 2021 has not been in vain. The plenary session of the Badalona (Barcelona) City Council gave this Tuesday, October 25, its approval to the provisional approval of the Special urban plan for the regulation of games of chance in the municipality of Badalona.

The proposal, approved unanimously, proposes that establishments for games of chance be located at a minimum distance of 450 meters of protected uses for the purposes of this planthat is, those spaces considered vulnerable.

In the case of schools the distance is still greater and the Plan considers a coverage of protection of 650 metros.

“We congratulate ourselves because, before the determination of the neighbors and neighbors“All the political groups in the city, both from the government and from the opposition, have supported the claim of the platform,” they celebrated in a statement from Stop Bingo i Cases d’Apostes Llefià.

Beginnings of the fight

The platform announced its activity in April 2021 after learning of the future opening of a bingo venue on Avenida Alfonso XIII 364-366in the Llefià neighborhood of Badalona.

From the entity they have always remembered that the one from Llefià is a working-class neighborhood of vulnerable families and they feared that these families would be immersed “in the scourge associated with addiction to gambling and gambling”.

They also pointed out that the place where the bingo room will be located is close to a mental health center. “It is a neighborhood where people are having a very bad time and this [la apertura del bingo]”It’s going to make people want to come and play, for quick money, but what it’s going to create is a lot of pain,” he said at the time. Juan Ignacio Seguraspokesperson for the platform.

Now, from Stop Bingo and Casas d’Apostes Llefià celebrate that the “sustained and united” neighborhood struggle & rdquor; It has been “key & rdquor; to achieve the stoppage of the opening of a bingo hall in the Llefià neighborhood and claim that this mobilization has led to the “creation and implementation of the regulations on the regulation of games of chance in Badalona & rdquor ;.

Regulation “coherent & rdquor; throughout the municipality

On May 24, 2022, the Local Government Board from Badalona toinitially tested the Plan and also the one-year extension of the licensing suspension for the exercise of activities related to games of chance such as bingos, casinos, game rooms and betting shops.

After the mandatory period of public information on the file, from the City Council they explain that there is no record that it has been presented no allegation and, therefore, it was processed, prior to final approval.

The purpose of the special urban plan for the regulation of games of chance, followed by the consistory, is to regulate the intensity of land uses and urban conditions for the implementation of publicly attended establishments for gaming halls, bingo halls and casinos. game in Badalona, ​​in order to “eestablish a coherent regulation throughout the municipality and adjusted to the current guidelines on health”.

vulnerable groups

In this sense, the main objective of the Plan is minimize accessibility by vulnerable groups to establishments dedicated to games of chance, in order to reduce the addiction risks and associated harms.

The proposed regulation, comments from the Badalona City Council, “is justified according to a prior analysis of the spheres of action of vulnerable groups and with the desire to obtain a correct balance between gaming as a leisure and entertainment activity and the necessary protection of consumers against the risk derived from this activity& rdquor ;.

According to the Special Regulation Plan, once the scientific evidence has been analyzed regarding the main individual and environmental factors of vulnerability to gambling disorders, the especial protection of various uses linked to vulnerable groups against damages associated with gambling, “limiting the nearby presence of establishments where gambling-related activities take place& rdquor ;.

Related news

Therefore, for the purposes of this Plan, it is proposed that the following be considered protected uses: educational centers; The libraries; municipal sports centers; open centers; juvenile detention centers; youth and neighborhood centers; civic centers; health centers; the hospitals; primary and emergency care centers; care and follow-up centers for drug dependencies; mental health centers; day centers and hospitals; care centers for people with gambling problems/gambling disorders; social service centers; the centers of the Employment Service of Catalonia and unemployment offices.

Read all the news of Badalona in THE NEWSPAPER Badalona

Source: www.elperiodico.com



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