ROME – Yesterday morning, at the Hotel Nazionale in Piazza Montecitorio, the event “Legal Market and Public Gaming: The Role of the Industry” was held, organized by AGIC – Confindustria (the Association for Licensed Gaming and Entertainment). During the event, the results of a study conducted by Luiss Business School were presented, which examined gambling habits and preferences in Italy, with a particular focus on the reasons that lead consumers to turn to illegal channels.
LEGALITY. While regulated gambling provides a significant contribution to public finances (in 2024 net expenditure reached €21 billion and tax revenues exceeded €11 billion), illegal gambling, on the other hand, deprives the State and licensed operators of substantial resources. Needless to say, this represents a serious threat both to consumer protection and to the overall balance of the market: it is estimated that the illegal sector generates between €20 and €25 billion in wagers each year (equivalent to €3 billion in net expenditure and, consequently, €2 billion in lost tax revenues).
INFORMATION. One of the most striking findings of this research is that many of the people who turn to illegal channels do so entirely unknowingly, highlighting the difficulty in distinguishing between the different platforms. For this reason, as emphasized by the various speakers who took the stage yesterday, an urgent need emerged to define effective counter-strategies based not only on monitoring and enforcement, but also on information and awareness-raising, in order to strengthen the legal gambling sector to the detriment of the illegal one.
“We are not operating within a perfectly sealed perimeter. The external variable is the aggressiveness of the illegal market, driven by technological evolution, which is increasingly penetrating the legal market.”
This was underlined by Gennaro Schettino, president of AGIC, during the I-Com conference.
The regulated gambling industry plays a key role not only from an economic perspective but also for its social and regulatory implications, as it represents a significant component of the national economy: in 2024, net expenditure reached €21 billion, while tax revenues exceeded €11 billion.
Legal gambling generates around €12 billion per year in tax revenues. In 2024, net expenditure amounted to €21 billion.
