Italy changes the gambling law when it comes to licenses. Since the Reorganization of Gambling legislation was published, the operators weren’t satisfied, so a new framework came as an amendment to the ongoing regulations.
Resolve the operations issues
The main mission of this framework is to resolve legal disputes between the ADM (Italy’s Customs and Monopolies Agency) and operators, who can’t come to an agreement about the terms of license renewal. Among the issues was the fact that ADM wanted to terminate all licenses that were to expire in 2023 or 2024, and the government had to intervene.
Thanks to the new framework, the new operators will get licensed in Italy in the upcoming few months. Their licenses will last for nine years, and the fee they would have to pay is set at €7 million ($7,5 million). According to the previous law from 2018, the license fee was €200,000 ($214,834), so this is a significant increase in the fees. But that’s not all – after taxes, all operators will have to pay 3% of Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) annually.
The Ministry of Finance (MEF) claims that the Italian gaming market changed in 2011 and that it’s the reason for increased fees. At the moment, big names such as SNAI, Flutter Entertainment, Lottomatica, Entain, and SKS365 dominate the market. As the Ministry of Economy and Finance estimates, around 50 operators will be interested in renewing the license.
The operators are obligated to operate only one app for each product they have, and concessionaires can have only one website.
It is expected that gaming taxes in Italy will further increase in upcoming years – €200 million in 2024 and €150 million in 2025. On top of that, the concession fees will bring €100 million annually to the government.
New requirements and tender for Lotto
Among other requirements for operators, there’s a set of technical ones. Among them is setting playing limits on platforms, which have to be set by customers, and incorporating warning messages when a player comes close to that limit. On top of that, ADM will have the right to fight unlicensed operators, including blocking their payments.
Popular Italy’s Lotto Euro game will get a new operator, and the government is about to launch a tender. Until November 2025, the game is managed by IGT, but the state is looking for a new operator. The bid begins at €1 billion.
After 2025, it is expected that the game will earn €7,7 billion annual turnover. On top of that, net annual revenue for nine years is about €200 million.
Source: “Italy’s take on licensing framework for online gambling”, April 16, 2024.