Italian regions urged to support gambling reorganisation plans

The Conferenza Unificata has called on presidents and councillors to back the plans.

Italy.- The Conferenza Unificata, which coordinates the cooperation between Italy’s central government and the country’s autonomous regions, has urged regional presidents and municipal councillors to support the planned reorganisation of land-based gambling.

At the national level, progress was made last year on Phase 1 of Italy’s gambling reforms, which aim to modernise the concession model for land-based gambling franchises and to introduce standardised rules for gambling venues across all of Italy’s 20 administrative regions. 

The law will see the continuation of Italy’s concession model and police authorisation for land-based gaming but is expected to introduce required minimum characteristics for gambling venues, limits on stakes and winnings, mandatory training for operators and dealers and a ban on betting on underage sports competitions.

Venues will have to comply with set opening times and minimum distances of between 200 and 500 metres from sites such as schools and hospitals. Many of the changes are designed to create a more unified framework, replacing fragmented regional regulations.  A revamp of Italy’s self-exclusion scheme has also been recommended.

However, the move requires the support of the 20 autonomous regions and 100 municipalities. The Conferenza Unificata said it had reviewed the government’s decrees and judged that they entailed no detrimental financial impact on regional budgets. It called on local authorities to collaborate by giving feedback on their measures against pathological gambling and to form a working group.

The CU said it was aware that there were issues with the monitoring of retail gambling but stressed that regional governments should have at least basic details on the locations of outlets. CU members have called for the government to assign 5 per cent of slot machine revenue to regions to help fund monitoring and safer gambling measures. The national government’s decree on the reorganisation of the land-based gambling sector still needs to be approved by the parliamentary Finance Committee. It’s expected to report on February 22.