Italy anticipates to start a legal overhaul of land-based gambling, progressing on the required to modernise and unify laws, requirements and defenses across 20 self-governing areas and 110 towns.
Following a near two-years of negotiations with regional authorities, Giorgia Meloni's government is expected to publish a 'draft decree' on new laws applied to the management of gaming machine networks. Articles will apply nationally to franchise operators of slot devices, bingo halls and VLT systems.
As reported by AgiproNews, which has detailed crucial settlements of the reform to SBC News, the will be submitted to the Council of Ministers for review and recommendation under Italy's financial delegation structure.
Once approved at cabinet level, the legislation will proceed to the Joint State-Regions Conference and appropriate parliamentary committees, without any fixed timeline yet set for execution.
The extended settlement process has been led by the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), spearheaded by Deputy Minister Maurizio Leo, along with Roberto Alesse and Mario Lollobrigida, regard of President and Head of Gaming at Italy's Agency of Customs and Monopolies (ADM) - the company supervising the betting market.
Retail follows online shakeup
Tough negotiations concentrated on fixing up national regulatory consistency with local level of sensitivities surrounding tax, prospective revenue losses, payment systems and regional budgeting effects.
The land-based reform types part of a broader restructuring of Italy's betting structure, which the Meloni federal government deliberately split into different stages for online and retail betting.
The first required prioritised the overhaul of Italy's online betting routine, which came into force in November 2025, presenting brand-new licensing, tax and compliance requirements for digital operators.
Attention has now moved to the retail sector, where early indicators suggest a significant rationalisation of Italy's gambling footprint tied carefully to customer security and harm-prevention goals.
The variety of outlets allowed to host slots consisting of bars, tobacconists and video gaming halls - is expected to fall by around 10%, decreasing the national overall to around 40,000 areas.
Betting stores will remain capped at 10,000 nationwide, while the longstanding difference in between specialised wagering shops and "wagering corners" within hospitality places will be eliminated.
Machine numbers will also be downsized, with slots forecasted to decline from roughly 240,000 units to 200,000, while VLT volumes will be lowered by around 20% - from 55,000 to 46,000 gadgets.
Protection sweep
A main pillar of the reform will be the intro of a certification routine overseen by the ADM. Licences and franchises will be needed to show compliance with boosted requirements on player defense, gambling damage avoidance and robust controls to avoid minor gain access to.
AgiproNews keeps in mind that the directing principles of the reform are "the progressive rationalisation of the retail network and the strengthening of customer security across all gaming channels."
New minimum distance rules from so-called "sensitive locations" will also be formalised, with certified places based on a 100-metre buffer and non-certified outlets to 200 metres.
These zones will consist of secondary schools, dependency treatment centres and medical facility facilities - changing a regulatory patchwork that has long differed between areas.
The draft decree will further impose tighter controls on opening hours, mandating daily closure durations of 6 and a half hours for certified venues and 8 hours for non-certified premises.
Alongside the structural reforms, the federal government is preparing brand-new concession tenders for gaming makers, wagering and bingo operations, expected to be released by year-end and projected to create near to EUR2bn in new tax revenues.
Big Beast market
The settlement duration coincided with a competitive consolidation throughout Italy's land-based betting sector. In 2024, a recently listed Lottomatica reinforced its retail supremacy through the EUR650m acquisition of SKS365, to take control of its +1,100 PlanetWin betting/arcade franchises.
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Italy Sets next Stage of Gambling Overhaul With Retail Revisions
leestrope50507 edited this page 2026-05-01 03:18:42 -05:00