The inventor of the receipt lottery: “Meloni attacked my idea, today he’s relaunching it. But I received threats”

“Meloni and the Brothers of Italy had defined my lottery of receipts as shameful. An idiot. But now they are relaunching it by taking up my original idea”. Vincent Bacarella he is a computer scientist. 43 years old, he returned to live in Palermo, where he was born and where he works. “I went back as soon as the south working phenomenon was born. I was one of the first to do it.” Two years ago the Conte government launched the receipt lottery making it one of the two pillars of the Italy Cashless strategy (the other was cashback).

The right-wing opposition strongly attacks the measure. Now that the right governs, however, it is relaunching the instrument. A tax credit has been included in the draft of the Budget Law to adapt the telematic cash registers to introduce a new form of the Lottery, which was already discussed last May. This time it will be a ‘scratch card’ model. A QR code will be printed on the receipt which will immediately tell if you have won. And how much. Winnings not by extraction, but immediate. “That was exactly my idea.”

Bacarella, are you satisfied?

“Yup. I thought she was going to be canceled any minute. Brothers of Italy and Meloni attacked it in every way. Instead, it has made a comeback. More so in my original idea”.

Are you referring to the ‘scratch card’ mechanism?

“Yes, that’s what I thought of in 2008. A cash register connected to the Internet and to the Revenue Agency. When it issues the receipt, it also prints a QR code to scan to find out immediately if you have won”.

In 2008, there were few smartphones. And the QR was science fiction.

“In fact, in my project, the receipt had to be controlled from a home PC”.

The Conte 2 government applied his idea for the first time.

“But in the wrong way.”

Explain to us.

“The Lottery system was not immediate. Much less immediate than the ‘scratch and win’ model system. It was obvious right away.”

This critics say was the reason for its failure.

“Exactly. Even if it was difficult months before failing”.

What do you mean?

“I was threatened on social media. I was ready to make a complaint to the Carabinieri”.

Who was threatening her?

“I don’t know, I think exhibitors because then the adjustment of the recorders was their responsibility. But I don’t even exclude that it may have been people incited by the words that a political party used against the instrument”.

Let’s go back to the government for a moment. Why do you think the Lottery hasn’t been cancelled?

“Because it has proved to be a useful tool to combat tax evasion. And it serves to achieve the objectives of the Pnrr. In addition, it costs little, much less than the cashback that Draghi in fact immediately eliminated ”.

Let’s go back even further. To the idea of ​​the receipt lottery.

“Year 2008. At the time I was in Pisa where I studied Computer Science. I discover that my colleague Carlo Alberto from Turin had launched a competition for ideas capable of improving the economy. I think it was called ‘An idea for the economy’. I figured escapism was a problem. And that Italians love gambling: lotto, scratch cards. And I connected the two things: the receipts, the lottery”.

Put like this it seems very simple. It is actually a very complicated mechanism.

“Then there weren’t even cash registers connected to the network. I had imagined everything from scratch”.

In fact, the idea had to wait 12 years to see a first application.

“In those years it was occasionally taken up by some government but without ever realizing anything. Only the Conte 2 made it. Even if, as you know, it didn’t go very well ”.

Why do you think?

“Little marketing to the idea. And little immediacy of the instrument”.

Are you more confident now that they will resume your original idea?

“It could work yes.”