ITALY Law and Practice Contributed by: Stefano Sbordoni, Sbordoni & Partners
2.2 Land-Based Gambling The legal gaming market in Italy is structured into two segments: • “public gaming” managed by the State through the ADM; and • the activity of authorised private and corporate gaming houses and casinos (Sanremo, Campi- one d’Italia, Venice and Saint Vincent), as well as joint stock companies whose capital is held by the granting administrations (regions, provinces or municipalities). The legal land-based games are: • sports betting and horse race betting; • poker; • bingo; • lotteries (Lotto, SuperEnalotto, national lotteries, Scratch and Win, etc); and • AWP machines (under Article 110, paragraph 6a of TULPS), VLTs (under Article 110, paragraph 6b of TULPS) and amusement machines without cash prizes (Article 110, paragraph 7 of TULPS). The main EU and Italian regulatory frameworks that govern land-based gambling in Italy are those that apply to the gaming and betting sector in general (see 3.1 Key Legislation ). Betting Until 1998, the only legal bets in Italy were Totocal- cio (an Italian football pool) bets and horse race bets, which were managed by the State through CONI and the Italian Horse Breeding Association ( Unione Nazi- onale per l’Incremento delle Razze Equine , or UNIRE) respectively. Legislative Decree No 504/1998, among other things: • officially recognises sports betting as a legal activ- ity under state control; • grants the State – through the ADM – the power to issue concessions for the management of agen- cies; • introduces taxation on betting (a flat tax); and • establishes that bets can only be collected through authorised dealers.
tive Decree 231/2007 (AML regulations), Law 96/2018 (the “Dignity Decree”) and Legislative Decree 41/2024. These rules include: • requirement for all cash flows to be traceable; • prohibition of the use of cryptocurrencies or anony- mous payment methods; • registration of players through provision of an iden- tity document (KYC); • minimum age of 18 for players; • the option to exclude onself from gaming through the ADM’s national self-exclusion register ( Registro Unico degli Autoesclusi , or RUA); • daily and monthly deposit limits set by the user; and • monitoring to prevent “pathological gambling”. Electronic Sports As yet, with regard to electronic sports (“esports”) competitions, Italy does not have a comprehensive law that recognises esports as a national sporting discipline (ie, under the aegis of CONI) with all the rights and obligations of traditional sports. There- fore, esports are subject to sector-specific regula- tions within some sporting bodies ‒ for example, the Italian Automobile Club ( Automobile Club d’Italia , or ACI) published its “2023 ESports Sector Regulations”, which addresses matters such as memberships, reg- istrations, and competition methods (online, onsite, blended) in the field of sim racing. The Italian Esports Association (IEA) has a “Regula- tions” section expressing its commitment to promot- ing adequate regulation for the Italian esports eco- system. As regards esports betting, the ADM has considered video game competitions as “non-traditional” or “sim- ulated” events in the context of betting since at least 2016. The “Esports Legal Manifesto” by the Italian Esports Observatory ( Italiano Esports Osservatorio , or OIES) highlighted many of the sector’s critical issues and proposed solutions in terms of definitions, reporting requirements, prize pool guarantees, and restrictions for minors.
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