Italy: trade association raises concerns over online gambling reforms

Logico says the proposed hike in licence fee would harm competition.

Italy.- The trade association Logico has raised concerns about proposed online gambling reforms set out by Italy’s Ministry for Economy and Finance (MEF). While it welcomed the move to update regulations that were introduced in 2011, it says the preliminary decree proposed by the MEF would be detrimental to competition.

A key complaint is the proposal for a steep hike in the licence authorisation fee from €200,000 to €7m. Logico said this would reduce participation in the bidding process to “no more than 20 concessionaires” compared to the current 83, severely reducing competition. The MEF says the proposed fee reflects the current market dynamics, marked by the domination of giants Entain, Flutter, Lottomatica, SKS365 and SNAI.

Operators also want more attention to protecting the market from unlicensed gambling, which is estimated to take €1bn in gross revenue each year. They want action against payment service providers (PSPs) that provide services to unlicensed operators.

The European Gaming & Betting Association (EGBA) has suggested that at least part of the cause is Italy’s ban on gambling adverts. The Brussels-based online gambling trade body argues that the 2018 law has helped black market operators by limiting the ability of licensed operators to promote their services.

“Nearly €1bn in online gross gaming revenue in Italy is lost to black market websites annually, equivalent to the combined regulated online gambling revenue of eight other EU member states,” it said.

Last week, the Italian media and communications regulator AGCOM issued a €2.25m fine against Google and a €900,000 fine against Twitch for breaches of Italy’s blanket ban on gambling ads. The fines were issued against the subsidiaries Google Ireland and Twitch Interactive Germany.

AGCOM said it began an investigation after receiving “numerous reports”. It found that more than 80 YouTube and Twitch channels distributed over 20,000 videos that promoted slots, sports betting, and scratch cards.