Earlier this week, the Prague legislators had proposed a Bill to ban slot game machines and other electronic and mechanical gaming machines. Amidst protest from the opposition and public alike, the lawmakers in Prague have approved the ban on said games.
The Indian Wire had earlier reported the same when the Bill was proposed for such ban.
Increasing the speed of the process, the Prague Councilors on September 15, 2020 approved the Bill ousting all electronic and mechanical games from the city. The law will come into force from January 1, 2021.
Notably, the legislators have kept the live gaming and gambling option alive and have not ventured to tinker the traditional games in the city.
The opposition expressed concerns over the loss of public funds that this ban would entail and the shortage of revenue that might arise in view of this ban.
However, the councilors emphasized upon the psychological and other harms that the gambling leads to and often ends up in addiction. The harm to the society from these games is monumental the lawmakers stated.
Prague Councillor, Hana Kordová Marvanová said that, “In Prague, we decided to follow the path of a blanket ban on slot machines throughout the city, because we set ourselves the goal of reducing the most dangerous forms of gambling, which include playing slot machines. Statistics show that limiting the availability of gambling has a significant positive impact in the area of negative social phenomena, such as pathological gambling or non-payment”, reported Gambling News.
Additionally, the councilor addressed the concerns of public funds and stated that the funds were being used for cultural, educational and sports purposes. In order to ensure that these public activities do not get affected, the City Councilor has approved financial compensation for these services in parallel to blanket on electronic gambling machines.