Italy has announced that it will conduct an expansive reform of online gaming laws this year, ReadWrite reported January 4.
Specifically, the government announced the “Reorganization Decree” by the Ministry of the Economy and Finance (MEF). This will be the first reorganization since the online market was established in 2011.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has endorsed reorganization of Italy’s gambling sector for its potential to improve the economy and raise government revenues.
The purpose of the decree is to settle some industry conflicts that have been ongoing for many years. This includes protecting the vulnerable population, in particular minors, fighting criminal activities such as money-laundering and bringing in more tax revenue. It will also introduce self-exclusion, send out warnings and enforce customer restrictions based on how much they have in their accounts.
It will also include revising the online licensing architecture that will include a €7 million (7,672,560) authorization fee for each online gambling license, to be applied in tandem with an operating fee of 3 percent.
Future operators will be required to pay 0.2 percent of net revenues annually. The latter will fund campaigns to promote responsible gaming under the aegis of a new department of gambling that will be under the country’s Customs and Monopolies Agency (ADM).
Operators will be limited to five licenses. This limit is intended to help MEF end skin websites selling single concessionaire products, a practice that ADM has opposed.
Under the new regime the government anticipates ”the expected revenue from the competition is €350 million (€200 million in 2024 and €150 million in 2025), while the concession fee will bring in new annual revenues of 100 million. Over €6 million per year will come from the registration fee for the Register of online top-up agents,” AgiproNews reported.
The increase of 3,500 percent of fees is concerning to the Italian online gambling trade association Logico, which joined the trade association Acadi in demanding that the government get industry input before implementing the change.
The potential number of existing operators who could apply for online gaming licenses is 83, of which the government expects at least 50 to do so.
Treasury Deputy Minister Maurizio Leo hailed the decree. Leo, who will be in charge of the overhaul, said “approval of the Decree will allow the government to put an end to the legal disputes on licensing extensions.”
It may also help relieve the logjam of legal challenges to the ADM on existing concessions.
