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Italiano Slot Machines & Tobacco: the Same Black Hand
Now that the slot machine scandal has broken out, that cost us 98 billion euro, we must not forget the tobacco sector. Like gambling, it is under the control of the AAMS (Azienda Autonoma Monopoli di Stato –Autonomous State Monopolies Agency).
Gianfranco Fini’s man, Alberto Giorgetti, undersecretary of the Ministry of Finance delegated to handle games and tobacco issues, together with Raffaele Ferrara, director general of the AAMS, have done some “very interesting” things, safeguarding the interests of foreign multinationals and damaging the State treasury and Italy’s producers.
First Manlio Contento, then Alberto Giorgetti. Why, since 2001, every time the center-right has made up the government, the responsibility for gaming and tobacco has always been an appanage of the Alleanza Nazionale party? And what a coincidence, Gabriella Alemanno, sister of the A.N. Mayor of Rome, filled the very delicate position of directress of the strategies of the AAMS.
The European Union had just sentenced that Italy’s Minimum Price of cigarettes was illegal, and here came the “Minimum tax”, the only tax in the world that is impossible to pay. Thought up by Giorgetti, with Ferrara acting as technical guarantor, this ridiculous tax was inserted with a last minute blitz into law-decree no. 78 of 2010, which contained urgent measures for financial stabilization and economic competitiveness. It was converted to law without anyone even noticing what was happening.
When will our courts begin looking into the activities of Raffaele Ferrara and his predecessor Giorgio Tino and into the money they allowed to be stolen in the tobacco business? In this sector, too, there would be billions to pay back. Someone, some day will investigate the role of Gabriella Alemanno, not only regarding the theft committed through slot machines, but also for the minimum price of cigarettes?
The Fight against the Real Mafia
If we recalculate the State’s revenue with the “minimum excise” indicated by the E.U., instead of the “minimum tax”, invented by Fini’s people with the collaboration of the AAMS, with our consumption of four and a half billion packs each year, the state income would add up to 900 million euro. This would be a significant increase for the State Treasury, without making any substantial changes in cigarette price lists.
Where would the money come from? The 900 million would not be the result of higher prices paid by smokers, it would come out of the re-sizing of the manufacturers’ profits. The tobacco giants, due to the effects of free competition, would be forced to contain their prices. This is exactly what happened in France after the abolition of the minimum price.
If the State decided, then, to increase cigarette prices, it would have to raise the excise aliquot, which in Italy has not changed since 2003. If the aliquot rose to 64%, as it is in France, compared to 58.5% in Italy, the greater income for the State coffers would be close to 4 billion a year.
The far-sighted strategy of the followers of Fini, the right-wing leader who transformed the post-fascist Alleanza Nazionale party into the house-steward of those whom the Duce used to call “plutocratic powers”, was meant to guarantee progress for the party and careers for its members, using the money of the collectivity.
From handymen of the CIA for anti-communist purposes after the war, to bodyguards of the multinationals today, the fascists have adapted to the times and have found, they too, the way to thrive and prosper. And as good servants, they have helped our foreign bosses steal astronomical sums, while our newspapers make headlines about the bosses of Cosa Nostra: Toto Riina and Bernardo Provenzano.
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