What is behind the online gaming agreement signed on Monday, August 3 between the Messina Prosecutor’s Office, the Guardia di Finanza, and the Customs and Monopolies Agency? First of all, there are data and hypotheses surrounding a territory of growing investigative interest.
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The numbers of gaming
The latest analyses on gambling place the city of the Strait among the top spots in Italy for per capita spending on betting platforms, virtual casinos, digital lotteries. Eighth, according to the latest edition of the “Black Book of Gambling” (promoted by Federconsumatori and Cgil): 4,488 euros per person in 2025, compared to a national average of about 3,000 euros and 2,365 only online. In a projection between legal and illegal gaming, the province shoots to first place. Narrowing the focus to individual municipalities, that of Patti, the birthplace, among other things, of the fixer Michele Sindona director of the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano, is the first in the entire country – with about 7,000 euros of spending per person – among centers with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants.
The disproportion with incomes
All lawful so far, in a context of constant growth in gaming, especially in the South. But the data on Messina take on a different weight when paired with the population’s incomes. Low earnings, high investments in online bets. A disproportion that fuels a doubt, which has become an investigative front: the suspicion that even through online gaming channels the mafia families in the area launder the ever-increasing proceeds from drug trafficking. No longer just in transit between Scilla and Cariddi towards the mainland and beyond. But destined to stay here, sold in drug markets, delivered by drones even in prison, along with weapons, as recently discovered.
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The dynamism of the mafias of the Strait
To put it in the words of an investigator, it is a phase of «strong dynamism»: mafia families operating in an area between Sicily and Calabria – «underestimated at the central level», many repeat – who have long benefited from the shadow cast by the very strong attention on the Palermo Cosa Nostra. But this is a moment of great investments in public works in this province and debate around the prospects for the Strait Bridge. Thus, the online gaming agreement – implementation of a framework protocol stipulated at the central level between the Guardia di Finanza and the Customs Agency – besides allowing «to increase the development of risk analyses calibrated to the territorial context and to strengthen — through the exchange of information and controls — the action of prevention and contrast of illegal activities», they write in a joint note, takes on further weight.
The Prosecutor and the mafia threat
«One of the investigative pieces in progress following the flow of money – reflects with IlSole 24ore the Prosecutor of Messina, Antonio D’Amato – in the fight against a mafia that in this area and in this precise historical phase constitutes a very serious threat. To protect the community, the healthy economy, and the development of a strategic territory for the country».
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