ITALY Law and Practice Contributed by: Stefano Sbordoni, Sbordoni & Partners
violations, as well as heavy fines for failure to per- form due diligence or failure to submit an SOS. For violations of concession obligations, Article 4 of Law No 401/1989 (as subsequently amended) estab- lished penalties of imprisonment from three to six years and a fine from EUR20,000 to EUR50,000 for: • anyone who unlawfully operates the organisation of the Lotto game or of betting or forecasting com- petitions that the law reserves to the State or to another authorised concessionaire; • anyone who, in any manner, organises betting or forecasting competitions on sporting events man- aged by CONI, by entities dependent on CONI, or by UNIRE; • anyone who organises, operates or remotely col- lects – without the required concession – any game established or regulated by the ADM; • anyone who ‒ without a concession, authorisation or licence under Article 88 of TULPS ‒ carries out in Italy any activity aimed at accepting or collecting (or otherwise facilitating the acceptance or collec- tion – including by telephone or telematic means – of) bets of any kind, accepted in Italy or abroad; • anyone who collects or books Lotto plays, fore- casting competitions or bets by telephone or tele- matic means without specific authorisation from the MEF and/or the ADM to use such means for said collection or booking; and • “third parties who participate in or promote games or bets organised by entities without a concession (even merely as intermediaries)”. Article 4 of Law No 401/1989 further imposes penal- ties of imprisonment from three months to one year and a fine from EUR500 to EUR5,000 for: • anyone who unlawfully operates public betting on other competitions involving persons or animals and games of skill; • anyone who sells on the national territory ‒ without ADM authorisation – tickets of lotteries or similar prize-drawing events issued by foreign states, as well as anyone who participates in such operations through the booking of plays and the crediting of related winnings and through promotion or adver- tising carried out by any means of dissemination;
• anyone who – although holding the required con- cession ‒ uses methods or technologies other than those provided for by law to organise, operate or remotely collect any game established or regulated by the ADM. For network service providers, payment service pro- viders, etc, who fail to comply with ADM orders to block access to or block accounts linked to entities without a concession, a fine of between EUR30,000 and EUR180,000 for each detected violation is imposed by Article 4 of Law No 401/1989. For authorised concessionaires who violate con- tractual/conventional obligations, MEF Decree No 57/2025 provides for fixed-amount penalties (for serious violations preventing continuation of the con- cession, or based on days of delay, or within a mini- mum/maximum set by the concession agreement). A reduction of the penalty is available (up to 30% of the fixed amount in the least serious cases) if the breach is remedied promptly. Regulation of the tax levy in the gaming sector pro- vides for different methods and rates according to the various types of gaming. Tax revenues from the sector are both non-tax-related and tax-related. In the first case, the tax levy coin- cides with the residual tax margin, which is obtained by subtracting the winnings paid to the players and the premium due to the gaming point manager from the total amount of the bets (collections). This levy only applies to the Lotto and to instant and deferred lotteries. The revenue generated by all other types of gaming is instead classified under tax revenue. Main Tax Levies PREU The PREU is a single withdrawal tax on gaming rev- enue, which was established by Law No 88/2009 and applies to games with cash prizes and betting regu- lated by the State. The PREU is applied on the follow- ing games and bets: 12. Tax 12.1 Tax Rate by Sector
245 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook