The Badalona Town Hall (Barcelonès) has approved a motion with the support of all political parties to prevent new betting houses from setting up in the city. The movement comes after a company has obtained a license to open in the Llefià neighborhood. Mayor, Xavier Garcia Albiolhas undertaken to study the possibility of approving a moratorium to be able to regulate this type of business urbanistically, but warns that the council has “no chance” of stopping Llefià bingo because it already has a license. The opposition charges against the PP government, which is justified by pointing to the Govern: “The licenses are given by the Generalitat“.
In this sense, Albiol has also warned that if the moratorium goes ahead “it must be done well” to prevent companies in the sector from taking it to court. Also the deputy mayor of the Territory, Daniel Graciashows “predisposition” to process a suspension of licenses but has not specified what the next steps will be.
The motion has voted on the initiative of the residents of the neighborhood, who ask for a restrictive regulation of the necessary requirements for obtaining betting house licenses, that protocols be established to prevent access by minors, that advertising for betting houses be prohibited bets and game online in the city, and that supra-municipal administrations update the Gambling Lawo.
The opposition blames the PP
The councilor of Guanyem Toni Flores requires the Albiol government to “comply” with the content of the motion presented by the residents to be able to “bring order” to the leisure model in the city: “We have to defend healthy leisure.” In this sense, Flores warns of the “aftermath” that a center of these characteristics can generate in the neighborhood. For their part, the Socialists assure that the city does not need this type of business. the councilor Andrea Zapata He explains that bingo can generate security, noise and gambling problems and criticizes the fact that betting has been “normalized” socially. For the PSC, the opening of this bingo could be a dangerous precedent for other venues of this type.
Also the councilor of the ‘communs’ Trained Pink asks the municipal government of the PP to be “clear” and commit to promoting a new ordinance that tries to paralyze the opening of bingo and prevents any other from being installed in the future. From CKD, Anna Laradefines bingo as “a bomb” for a neighborhood full of inequality and that can generate new problems.
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The spokesman for JxCat the consistory, David Torrents, asks Albiol to act in the same way that he did with the centers of worship: “He forbade it because he did not want mosques and now we ask for the same thing,” he says. Torrents ensures that the City Council has tools, via ordinance, to “hinder” the installation of this type of space.
More badalona news in the local edition of EL PERIÓDICO
Source: www.elperiodico.com
