Foosball is like slot machines, it must be taxed even if it is free to use.
The bathing establishments (table football is widely used on the beaches) are on a war footing: “ The fines have already started ”, reports Antonio Capacchione, president of the Italian Bathing Union (Sib).
"We are crazy - he underlines -, table football like videopoker".
“Everyone - explains Capacchione - is required to report table football, table tennis and pinball to the Customs Agency, even if they are free, and you must wait for authorization to put them into operation. Pending, for each table football the fine is 4 thousand euros ".
The rumor on social media has started and the owners of the establishments are ready to remove one of their favorite beach games so as not to run into penalties.
The rule, explains Sib, also affects "speakers and non-profit associations, where table football is often made available for free".
THE CUSTOMS AGENCY
The director general of the Customs Agency, Marcello Minenna , clarifies that this tax "has existed for almost 20 years", that "whoever puts these billiards pays a fixed amount of about ten euros a month", but "no mandate has been given to inspection offices to carry out checks because we are in a transitional period ".
The point of conflict is on a new rule that would change the conditions for those who have games that do not give cash prizes. "The agency - explains Minenna - has simplified a 2012 legal obligation into a very simple self-certification", this is the "2012 discipline, which unfortunately came into force following the lockdown, a standard that was dormant became operational" .
These games, he adds, “ must respect the technical rules ” that are on the Agency's website, so “why don't one make a self-certification that respects those technical rules? One of the two: either he forgot, and we reviewed the reopening of the terms, or that table football does not respect the technical characteristics and someone could get hurt ".
