Addictions: AGIC, data from the Report to Parliament confirm the urgency of effective rules. The underground market grows where there is no legal barrier.
AGIC, the association bringing together the main concession operators in the public gaming sector, expresses strong concern over the data contained in the 2026 Report to Parliament on addiction, which documents an increase in minors’ involvement in gambling — a phenomenon that is by definition illegal, given the ban on access for minors — and a broader spread of behavioural addictions, from digital addiction to online and land-based gambling.
The numbers are clear: according to the Report, in 2025, 60% of students gambled at least once in the previous year, with the share of “at-risk” and “problematic” profiles increasing compared with 2024. These are figures that AGIC has no intention of downplaying: they confirm that the problem exists, affects increasingly younger age groups, and requires concrete responses.
Precisely for this reason, the Association reiterates a distinction that the Report itself effectively confirms: underage gambling is, by definition, a phenomenon that takes place outside the legal perimeter, often through channels lacking effective age and identity controls.
AGIC: The Public Gaming Industry Between New Regulations and the Market
Rome, January 15, 2025 – The reorganization of the legal gaming sector, provided for by Legislative Decree 41/2024, represents a crucial opportunity to define a stable and modern regulatory framework. It is essential that these measures be accompanied by dialogue between institutions and concessionaires to build a more sustainable future, where legality, security, and competitiveness can coexist for the best development of the legal gaming sector.
With this objective in mind, the event “The Gaming Industry Between New Regulations and the Market” was held this morning at the MoMeC (Montecitorio Meeting Centre), promoted by AGIC – the Concession-Based Entertainment Gaming Association – a member of Confindustria’s confederal system, which associates the four main legal gaming concessionaires: Brightstar Lottery (formerly IGT), Lottomatica, Sisal Italia, Snaitech. AGIC represents a total of about 6,000 employees, a market share of legal gaming of nearly 70%, and an overall network of about 60,000 points of sale across the country.
In addition to the companies associated with AGIC, the event was attended by the Director General of Confindustria, Dr. Maurizio Tarquini; the Director of Gaming of the Customs and Monopolies Agency, Mario Lollobrigida; Prof. Giuseppe Melis, Professor of Tax Law at LUISS; Prof. Gennaro Terracciano, Professor of Administrative and Public Law at Foro Italico University in Rome; and institutional representatives such as Hon. Mauro Del Barba, Secretary of the Finance Committee of the Chamber of Deputies; Hon. Saverio Congedo, Member of the Finance Committee of the Chamber of Deputies; Sen. Antonio Misiani, Vice-President of the Senate Budget Committee; and Hon. Maurizio Casasco, Member of the Productive Activities Committee of the Chamber of Deputies and Head of the Forza Italia Economic Department.