Italy's retail gambling reform stalls as courts fill the gap

Reform of Italy's land-based gambling network remains frozen, with no government likely to tackle it before the next general election, according to warnings delivered at SBC Summit in Lisbon.

On a panel titled "Beyond the Reform: The New Italian Gaming Landscape", held on 30 September, IMGL co-founder and executive committee member Quirino Mancini said gambling's political sensitivity explains the paralysis. He told the audience it was hard to imagine any administration, regardless of political colour, taking on the network's reorganisation in the run-up to an election, calling the issue one that sits squarely in politics rather than in regulation or logistics.

The stakes are considerable. iGaming Business reports that retail still represents around three-quarters of Italy's gambling market, a sector worth more than €21 billion. While the online segment is midway through a comprehensive regulatory rebuild, with fresh rules due to apply from 13 November, no equivalent process has begun for betting shops and other physical venues.

Mancini traced the delay back to the 2016 Stability Law, the first legislative mention of restructuring the retail network, nearly a decade ago. He said the technical outline is essentially settled, with central government expected to determine network size, density, opening hours and proximity to sensitive locations, leaving regions and municipalities to handle rollout.

The panel took place as the Council of State issued a ruling on PVR outlets, the shops where customers top up online gambling accounts with cash. The court backed the €100 weekly limit on cash and non-traceable top-ups that has applied since May, and upheld the prohibition on withdrawals at these outlets, while rejecting a wider ban on internet-connected devices inside the shops as disproportionate.

Responding to the ruling from the floor, Mancini said that legislative inaction inevitably invites judicial intervention, warning that when courts end up writing the rules, it rarely produces good regulation. He added that, with respect to magistrates, they typically lack a detailed understanding of how the industry functions.

Operators straddling both channels described the practical fallout. Davide Diodato, chief executive of Novomatic-owned HBG Online, said online licences run on a nine-year cycle while retail concessions are renewed annually, comparing the mismatch to flying an aircraft on two conflicting flight plans. He said the unpredictability weighs heaviest on small shopkeepers, who are left asking each year what comes next and struggle to justify investment or hiring as a result.

Sisal managing director Marco Tiso said retail rules were largely drafted two decades ago, calling the lack of reform a missed opportunity, and noted that players encounter different products, payouts and promotions depending on whether they gamble online or in person.

Microgame chief executive Marco Castaldo described Italy's new online regime as a form of hyper-regulation of a complexity rarely matched elsewhere, predicting that other regulated markets will converge towards a similar model within years. He said the main consequence is accelerated consolidation: when moderator Mauro De Fabritiis of MDF Partners presented data on market concentration, Castaldo noted that the top five operators already control 85% of market gross gaming revenue, a share he expects to keep rising. He forecast that larger operators acquiring rivals would come out ahead, while smaller firms merging defensively would struggle to build real scale.

Stake Italy country director Fabio Bufalini raised a separate competitive concern, arguing that licensed operators are barred from advertising bonuses while unregulated sites market freely on social media, which he described plainly as unfair competition.

Panellists broadly agreed that online gambling still has room to grow, with penetration in Italy sitting between a half and a third of levels seen in some northern European markets. Several speakers argued retail's function is shifting rather than disappearing. Castaldo said physical, face-to-face engagement will always carry value, and that operators need to decide what experience they want to compete on and how digital fits around it.

Tiso predicted betting shops evolving from points of sale into points of assistance or meeting, and said he expects the traditional flow of customers to reverse, with online eventually directing players towards retail venues for the social and community experience they cannot get on a screen. He added that retail could also introduce new customers to casino-style products if certification processes are streamlined enough not to hold back innovation.

Diodato said this generational shift is already evident. Many of the industry's highest-value players spent the past 15 years first reaching their online accounts via shops and land-based affiliates, whereas younger customers are now more likely to encounter the industry first through online content or digital products.