They propose that the law include an article stipulating that the distance between facilities where lottery games of chance and special games of chance are held cannot be less than 80 meters.
On the way to school – past the bakery, the kiosk… and the betting shop. For many high school students, this is not an exception, but an everyday route. The places where money is invested and control is lost are right next to the classrooms, just a few steps away from minors.
"If you have betting shops located near schools, then you are sending the image that this is acceptable, that the behavior is normal. And you are putting them at greater risk of developing addiction. We need to involve young people more in the social system, in the decision-making process, and everything else because they have a lot to offer, education for both adults and various workshops that would help young people acquire responsible behavior," says psychologist Adriana Pejaković.
Precisely for this reason, initiatives to change this practice are becoming increasingly vocal.
"We can't wait when it comes to online betting, or bookmakers, two years is a long time. We need to introduce the strictest laws. In EU countries, there must be a minimum distance, in Spain 300 m, in Belgium there must be a betting shop even 1 km away. When we talk about Romania, local communities decide whether they are allowed to have betting shops at all on the territory of that local community. In our area, just in Lepa Kate, you have 9 betting shops within a 100-meter radius. In Sutjeska, we also have that example, but it is less important, because the problem is that children live in the entrances where the betting shop is in the building itself," says journalist Predrag Tomović.
While we wait for the existing law, which certainly provides for stricter measures, to be implemented, the picture remains the same – school and betting shop, door to door. The difference between the law and reality is obvious.
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