Campania court upholds Questura refusal for Bacoli betting shop

The Campania Regional Administrative Court (TAR Campania) has upheld a Questura refusal to allow a betting shop to open in Bacoli, in the province of Naples, according to the court ruling as reported. The court dismissed the company's appeal and confirmed the denial, finding the premises less than 250 metres from a nursery school.

The case turned on how the minimum distance from sensitive locations under the regional law governing the gambling sector is calculated. The company disputed measurements taken by the municipal police, arguing that the distance between the premises and the nearby nursery school, the Istituto Scolastico "A. Gramsci", was 269 metres and therefore above Campania's 250-metre limit.

According to the appellant, the municipality had wrongly used an emergency exit of the betting shop as the reference point and the external access to the school courtyard, rather than the main entrances of the two buildings. The administrative judges held that the municipal police checks were correct, having established distances of between 200 and 237 metres depending on the routes and measurement techniques used.

Even taking the betting shop entrance indicated by the company, only 12 metres from the one used as a reference by the municipality, the minimum limit set by law would not have been met, the court found. On the school access, TAR Campania rejected the argument that measurement should have ended at the internal door of the school building rather than the external pedestrian entrance used by pupils.

The court said that interpretation gives weight to "purely formalistic profiles" without considering the actual use by the school population, putting it at odds with the purpose of the distance rule. In its ruling the court also recalled that the provisions on minimum distances from sensitive locations fall within health protection, being intended to protect the most vulnerable groups and to prevent forms of problem gambling.

The Campania regional law states that the distance must be calculated "according to criteria that take account of road axes and, therefore, on the basis of the shortest pedestrian distances". The court's decision confirms the Questura's denial; the source gives no statement from the company and no information on any further appeal.