For the past 3 years or so, every morning I had cappuccino and cornetto in the same cafe’. Almost every morning I find a slightly rubberish dust on one of the tables. Was it possible that kids were erasing mistakes from their home-works at the cafe’ with their milk and ciambella? Suspicious.
And one morning, I got the illumination, Amelie-Poulain style: the strange dust was the result of frantic scratching of “Gratta e Vinci”, “Win for Life” and “Turista per Sempre”: Scartch-and-Win cards, sold by the dozen every single morning at the counter. Promising you millions or 4,000 euro per month (a sort of nice salary) and then a balloon payment at the end (if you are still alive).
There are more and more compulsive lottery players in Italy, it’s a real, nasty addiction, like drinking behind closed walls. It ruins families, and old pensioners. I am no fan of Casinos, but at least you get a sense of where you are, why you are there and plus, you don’t go there every day. With scratch and win cards it’s nastier. Like drinking alone behind closed doors, as opposed to partying with friends and downing too many mojitos on a friday.
Two weeks ago I could not resist and I asked – in a candid way – to the frantically scratching couple if they “had won something, sometimes?”. They looked at each other and said “Well…no….never…but it does make our breakfast 5 euro more expensive every day”. From more than anecdotical evidence I heard that in motorway bars families now save money on the panino and orange juice for kids in order to make room for the daily purchase of a Gratta e Vinci.
Last week I was in Basel and in the morning I watched ZDF. The same message as on Deutsche Welle. This time by a meteorologist, showing what it means as a job, what does he do during the day, what kind of training he has and the studies he needed. Blame it on the excellent welfare policies in Germany which could feel “too comfortable” sometimes, but the German TVs always show people who work and explain what their work is about. The last broadcast I saw on Italian TV about work was in the 70s (used to be on Saturday afternoons – rightly so – and had an intriguing graphics and a Pink Floyd jingle).
I learned at school that Italy is a Republic founded on Work.
It seems to me, it is now founded on Scratch and Win.
Photo: ANSA
PS
I forgot to mention that the probability of winning Win for Life is one on 2,88 millions….
Però ti dico pure che a me è capitato di grattare male, e di pensare di aver vinto mille euro.
E per un attimo (durato 2 giorni) ho creduto che la fortuna mi avesse baciato. La sensazione è molto forte. Quasi come dopo 10 pinte di Guinness a stomaco vuoto.
E ripiompbare nella squallida realtà da perdente è un’esperienza che non augurerei nemmeno al mio peggior nemico…
Poi, per tutto il resto, c’è…..
P.S. Te lo giuro che avre voluto scrivere in inglese, ma sto andando a dormire ed ho già fatto lo switch-off!
hi Meringa, welcome on board…
yeah, it’s adrenaline on tap.
better than sex, because it covers also the population who had to say adieu to sex.
that’s why it’s so lucrative.
beware of easter eggs. that’s where it all starts!
the commerce of hope…
cheers!
Striped
PS
yes yes comments in a bunch of languages and dialects are welcome