The numbers of the ever growing disaster in Italy

Here are the latest numbers of the gambling disaster in Italy which started 10 years ago when the government introduced free-gambling legislation in order to increase its own income. It's been a growing disaster year after year. One record after another.
Last year virtually every living person in Italy (babies included) spent 1,5 thousand EUR on gambling. 95 billion is the total sum. And in couple of years will be looking at the current numbers with nostalgy.
This is google translate page but you should have no problem understanding most of it.

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fespresso.repubblica.it%2Finchieste%2F2017%2F02%2F03%2Fnews%2Fgli-italiani-spendono-per-le-slot-machine-300-volte-piu-che-per-i-libri-1.294818&edit-text=

The saddest part in this craziness is that they introduced slot machines for kids. The so-called ticket redemption "games". It's the same $#%^ as slots (same music, same lights, same fun), only you don't get money for the points (so-called tickets) you win, but you get a prize (toys, tablets, watches etc). So now we have these machines where we used to have flippers and video-games. The kids are spending hours and hours on them. And once they turn 18 years they are ready to switch the room and head for the "real thing".

Is this madness ever going to stop? This is terrifying.
Years ago I felt like a sick person because I felt like I was the only one gambling. Soon I will start feeling sick because only one not gambling.

I was reading that Italy plans to scale back and reduce the # of slot machines by 1/3 by the end of 2017. However, the government is concerned about lost revenue.

This shows how governments have become dependent on gambling income. I live in a very progressive nation, Canada, which does seem to care about its citizens, yet there are slots all over the place in this province. The government splits the revenue with the bar/restaurant owner and the slot machine owner. These machines do so much harm to the citizens, but the powers-that-be seemingly do not care much.

What a strange situation we are not in, where the government used to protect people from the tar pit of gambling, now the government encourages participation in it.