The small town in the Padua region had already made headlines in 2021, when it decided to confer honorary citizenship on Jair Bolsonaro.
Anguillara Veneta, a town in the Padua region inhabited by just over 4,000 people, is one of the places in Italy where the most people bet online. Or at least that's what it would seem, if you read the report Not so small. Online gambling in small Italian townsdeveloped by CGIL, Federconsumatori and the Isscon Foundation. At the top of the ranking, established on the basis of data from the Customs and Monopolies Agency, is Anguillara Veneta, which records impressive figures.
The online betting boom in 2023
In 2023, an average of 960 euros each was spent on online gaming in Veneto, the lowest figure of all Italian regions. There is, however, an exception and it is called Anguillara Veneta. In 2022, the small town of Padua recorded 1,231 euros per capita spent on online betting, just above the regional figure. In 2023, the total amount spent by the 4,161 inhabitants of the village will exceed 40 million euros, or 13,073 each if we only consider residents between 18 and 74 years old. In summary, according to the report, the average resident of Anguillara spends 1,100 euros on online games every month.
The mayor's possible explanation
How is this possible? This is what Alessandra Buoso, mayor of Anguillara Veneta, is first asking for, Mail comments: “It is an absurd fact, it is not possible that there is such economic availability in the city, I would have noticed it if there were families who bet on their salary every month”, assures the first citizen. Buoso therefore puts forward an alternative explanation: “We could, for example, be in the presence of an IP address that is not based in Anguillara. In fact, the IP address is usually associated with a single location unless you are using a private Internet network, a VPN. At this point, if the connecting VPN server is located in Anguillara, the external IP address will appear connected from here, even if the person is elsewhere.
The recycling hypothesis
Another hypothesis is that someone created an online betting account using the data of an Anguillara resident, thus allowing more players to bet. A method that could also be used to launder dirty money. And that's why the mayor turned to the postal police. “I hope that the prosecution will clarify the data provided by the Customs and Monopolies Agency, this is not good publicity for our community at all. We want to know if it is an error or some kind of hacker who is causing the bets to appear in our town,” comments Buoso.
A country that gets people talking about it
Despite its rather small size, this is not the first time that Anguillara Veneta has been talked about. In 2021, the municipality of Padua made headlines with another decidedly special news: the decision to confer honorary citizenship on the former President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro, accused of crimes against humanity in his country. A choice that Buoso, mayor of the League, had tried to justify as recognition “not of a man and his policies, but of a country, Brazil”. Regardless, the Northern League administration's decision sparked much discussion, creating embarrassment and controversy even among neighboring municipalities.
