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On the game: Italians mimic Monopoly to ensure sex slaves receive a chance
On the game: Italians mimic Monopoly to ensure sex slaves receive a chance
Sophie Arie in Rome
Italians will soon be able to play at being prostitutes in a Monopoly-style board game in which players must dodge police raids, turf wars and serial killers to earn a living.
In Puttanopoly (which roughly translates to Whoresville), eight players become immigrant prostitutes enslaved by the mafia. The game, created by the Committee for Prostitutes' Civil Rights, aims to raise awareness of the growing problem of sex slavery.
Each "prostitute" starts the game penniless with a "slavery contract" forcing them to pay up to 90% of their earnings to their pimps. Rather than buy property in Park Lane, the women jump from Albanian pimps and police stations and hospitals, while trying not to get killed. If the dice roll their way, they land a week's earnings - up to 5,000 euros - in one go, win a trip to work in Amsterdam or are rescued by an enamoured client.
"Everything in the game is true," said its inventor, Daniela Mannu. "The idea is to give people an idea of what prostitutes are up against in this country."
The game, to be sold online for 50 euros (£34), comes as Italy struggles to stop a thriving vice trade, now thought to involve up to 70,000 prostitutes, of whom more than 40,000 are immigrants, mainly from Nigeria, Russia, the Balkans, and Ukraine. The number of prostitutes in Italy, known as lucciole (fireflies), quadrupled between 1991 and 2000, says the independent research centre Eurispes. While immigration laws have become stricter, authorities now offer temporary residence to entice immigrants to stop selling sex and undergo "social rehabilitation".
Prostitution is legal in Italy although brothels were banned in 1958. Women nevertheless tout for trade everywhere from Rome's Via Veneto to country lanes, where girls wait for passing lorry drivers. Soliciting prostitutes is illegal, although about half of Italian men do it, according to Eurispes.
Last year the Northern League leader and minister for reform, Umberto Bossi, presented a bill to establish "Eros centres", legally rented flats for two prostitutes, to keep them off the streets. Under the law, prostitutes would register with the government and receive health checks, while kerb crawlers could be arrested or fined. Critics argue that the law would create hidden ghettos for prostitutes and fail to stop sex slavery.
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