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Walter Galbiati, deputy director of Repubblica
We raise your bets, but you give us more money. The barter sounds more or less like this between the government and those who manage slot machines or video lotteries.
Although the levy on game operators doesn't stop there. Because it affects both the kiosks, where you can fish for soft toys with arms or games of skill such as darts, as well as those who have concessions for Lotto, Scratch & Win or SuperEnalotto.
The additional withdrawal. The contribution of the sector to the State accounts for next year, packaged in the newly filed Budget, will be very respectable because it will bring in 950 million euros which will rise to 2.6 billion in the three-year period to 2029.
A lot, if we consider that in 2025 the sector brought more than 11.5 billion to the tax authorities.
Minimal effect. Yet, according to estimates by Equita Sim, a company expert in advice to investors, it will not have much impact on the accounts of companies operating in the sector, or at least on Lottomatica (a few margin points) or Flutter, while on Brightstar, where extractions increase, it will have a boost in collections.
1) Slot machines and video lotteries. The biggest tax will be borne by slot machines and video lotteries, machines classified among those that win hard money.
The increase in bets. Individual games will be able to increase from one to two euros and at the same time the maximum payout that can be paid will increase from 100 to 200 euros.
More taxes. The retaliation will be the increase in taxation implemented through the single tax levy (Preu) which will rise by one percentage point for slot machines and video lotteries.
For the former it will go from 24 to 25%, while for the latter from 8.6 to 9.6%. Unlike other taxes that affect profits, the Preu is calculated as a percentage of the total bets (the so-called "gaming volume" or collection) and not on the operator's profit margin or losses.
The tax is due to the State by the concessionaire of the electronic network and is not received directly by the player, as it is already deducted at source from the flow of bets. And it is therefore likely that winnings will be eroded more than margins.
The contribution. For 2027, thanks to the new rates, a higher revenue for the State of 334 million is expected out of a total revenue of 5 billion, of which 3.5 attributable to slot machines and 1.5 to video lotteries in a market however which sees the latter sector growing and the former contracting.
In the following two years (2028 and 2029), the increase will be 365 and 456 million euros.
The renewal of concessions. The tax will rise with the addition of the renewal of the concessions expiring on 30 November 2026. To extend them, slot machine operators will have to pay 150 euros against the previous 100 for each of the 243 thousand active devices affected. A 50% increase which will earn the treasury 12.15 million a year for three years (36.45 million in total).
The same increase was applied to the renewal of video lottery licenses. The fee is 7,500 euros for each right issued of the over 61,700 issued for an estimated proceeds of 463 million euros, to be divided over three years (154.3 million per year).
2) Gaming machines without cash prizes. So far the entertainment devices that make you win money. But the long-eyed debt collector has not forgotten about the other games, without monitors, which offer no money and are mostly based on the skill of the player. They range from peaches with arms to darts, from pinball machines to jars.
The increase in bets. The games go from one to two euros and the prizes, generally small objects such as soft toys, adapt: their value, which can be a maximum of 20 times the stake, rises from 20 to 40 euros.
The barter is about adaptation. The government aims to regularize the devices installed before January 1, 2003 with a one-off payment of 1,000 euros per device, which according to estimates should bring in 15 million euros in 2027 for the Customs and Monopolies Agency.
3) E-games. Then there are other games without cash prizes, again based on skill, but delivered digitally through online platforms. These are the new games, from e-games to e-sports, mostly consumed in dedicated rooms, where you compete in championships like League of Legends or in fights like Tekken, using super-performance PCs or consoles.
The novelty. The sector had never been regulated and as it was growing rapidly, the government had its eyes on it.
The rates. Operators will have to request an authorization lasting two years and subject to the payment of a sum equal to 200 euros for each gaming machine used, 1,000 euros for each dedicated room, 2,000 euros for each game offered, 10,000 euros for each online platform used.
The collection. The forecast is to collect one million euros in 2027 and 10 million euros a year for the following two, to which the taxation of the devices must then be added.
Taxes. There is no data available, but it is assumed that there are 200 e-game arcades (LAN, Local are network) in Italy with an average of 20 gaming stations each, for a total of 4,000 devices.
By applying a rate of 8% in line with that of machines without cash prizes and a flat rate of 15 thousand euros for each machine to be raised to 25 thousand euros for large simulators, the government expects to collect 4.8 million by 2027.
Growth. The sector, however, is expected to be booming. The growth estimate is that when fully operational there will be approximately 2,300 Lan cinemas, one for each municipality with more than 5,000 inhabitants, for an estimated tax revenue of 55.2 million euros starting from 2028.
Not bad pe
4) Bingo. Other money should come from the extension of concessions expiring at the end of the year such as those for Bingo. Game rooms pay an allowance to the tax authorities based on turnover and it ranges from a minimum of 6,500 euros to a maximum of 14,500 euros per month for rooms with a turnover of more than 17 million per year.
The increase. The increase in the compensation for 2027 will be 100 euros for every 200 thousand euros of additional turnover, which means for the Customs and Monopolies Agency a collection of 21.5 million euros per year from 2027 to 2029.
The little gift. To compensate the sector for the additional effort, the government has relaxed the parameters, establishing that the distance to be observed between one gaming venue and another drops from 30 to 15 road kilometres.
5) The Scratch & Win. Since there is never enough money, ministers Giorgetti and Leo also saw fit to bring forward the renewal of the Scratch & Win cards which should have expired in September 2028. The tender was won by Brightstar which won the order on its own.
The increase. Now the request is to renew the concession until the end of 2029 with a 70% increase, calculated by adding the increase in collection between 2009 and 2025, equal to 38%, with an increase of 32% considered appropriate due to the fact of being a single concessionaire for a total of 188 million euros.
6) Lotto and SuperEnalotto. It went well in 2023, when introducing the fourth draw for Lotto and SuperEnalotto, the collection increased by 6%.
The government, mindful of what has already been done, has established the fifth draw in Mnaovra, to be carried out every Wednesday for which an increase in bets of 4% is estimated.
a) From the Lotto game which collected 2.2 billion for 2025, with a tax profit of 590 million, the additional revenue should be 15.7 million for 2027 and 22.2 million per year for the following two financial years.
b) From SuperEnalotto, whose 2025 collection was 1.6 billion with a profit for the Treasury of 524 million, additional revenues of 14.8 million are estimated for 2027 and 20.9 million euros for 2028 and 2029.
7) The amnesty. It is not a given that everything goes well. The maneuver included a discount for the extraordinary one-off payment that the Italian government had imposed in 2015 for operators in the slot machine and video lottery supply chain.
The hole. Of that tax, 90 of the estimated 500 million are still missing and to recover part of it the executive is now proposing a 20% discount, thus hoping to collect at least 70.
The conclusions. From next year, individual bets will certainly cost more, but it is not a given that winnings will increase because operators will have to compensate for the higher taxes. Of course, the market will continue to grow.
