Italy expects to initiate a legislative overhaul of land-based gambling, moving forward on the mandate to modernise and unify laws, standards and protections across 20 autonomous regions and 110 municipalities. 

Following a near two-years of negotiations with local authorities, Giorgia Meloni’s government is expected to publish a ‘draft decree’ on new laws applied to the management of gaming machine networks. Articles will apply nationally to franchise operators of slot machines, bingo halls and VLT systems.

As reported by AgiproNews, which has detailed key settlements of the reform to SBC News, the draft decree will be submitted to the Council of Ministers for review and endorsement under Italy’s fiscal delegation framework.

Once approved at cabinet level, the legislation will proceed to the Joint State–Regions Conference and relevant parliamentary committees, with no fixed timeline yet set for implementation.

The prolonged negotiation process has been led by the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), spearheaded by Deputy Minister Maurizio Leo, alongside Roberto Alesse and Mario Lollobrigida, respect of President and Head of Gaming at Italy’s Agency of Customs and Monopolies (ADM) – the agency overseeing the gambling market.

Retail follows online shakeup

Tough negotiations focused on reconciling national regulatory consistency with regional sensitivities surrounding taxation, potential revenue losses, compensation mechanisms and local budgeting impacts.

The land-based reform forms part of a wider restructuring of Italy’s gambling framework, which the Meloni government deliberately split into separate phases for online and retail gambling.

The first mandate prioritised the overhaul of Italy’s online gambling regime, which came into force in November 2025, introducing new licensing, tax and compliance requirements for digital operators.

Attention has now shifted to the retail sector, where early indications suggest a significant rationalisation of Italy’s gambling footprint tied closely to consumer protection and harm-prevention objectives. 

The number of outlets permitted to host slot machines including bars, tobacconists and gaming halls — is expected to fall by around 10%, reducing the national total to approximately 40,000 locations.

Betting shops will remain capped at 10,000 nationwide, while the longstanding distinction between specialised betting shops and “betting corners” within hospitality venues will be abolished.

Machine numbers will also be scaled back, with slot machines projected to decline from roughly 240,000 units to 200,000, while VLT volumes will be reduced by around 20% — from 55,000 to 46,000 devices.

Protection sweep

A central pillar of the reform will be the introduction of a certification regime overseen by the ADM. Licences and franchises will be required to demonstrate compliance with enhanced standards on player protection, gambling harm prevention and robust controls to prevent underage access.

AgiproNews notes that the guiding principles of the reform are “the gradual rationalisation of the retail network and the strengthening of consumer protection across all gambling channels.”

New minimum distance rules from so-called “sensitive locations” will also be formalised, with certified venues subject to a 100-metre buffer and non-certified outlets to 200 metres.

These zones will include secondary schools, addiction treatment centres and hospital facilities — replacing a regulatory patchwork that has long varied between regions.

The draft decree will further impose tighter controls on opening hours, mandating daily closure periods of six and a half hours for certified venues and eight hours for non-certified premises.

Alongside the structural reforms, the government is preparing new concession tenders for gaming machines, betting and bingo operations, expected to be published by year-end and projected to generate close to €2bn in new tax revenues.

Big Beast market

The negotiation period coincided with a competitive consolidation across Italy’s land-based gambling sector. In 2024, a newly listed Lottomatica strengthened its retail dominance through the €650m acquisition of SKS365, to take control of its +1,100 PlanetWin betting/arcade franchises. 

The market was further disrupted by Flutter Entertainment’s back-to-back Italian M&As of Sisal (€2.bn) and Snaitech (€2.3bn) – underscoring the NYSE/LSE gambling group’s intent to become Italy’s dominant gambling operator. 

While policymakers view consolidation as a stabilising force for compliance and consumer protection, industry observers warn that the new regulatory framework will prove significantly harder to accommodate for independent operators and smaller local betting franchises already facing rising operating and licensing costs.

Thus in retrospect, Italy’s gambling reorganisation was already taking shape long before local regulatory settlements, driven instead by a wave of multi-billion-euro consolidation deals. 

Changes see analysts agree that Italy’s market make-up now overwhelmingly favours PLC beasts, making survival increasingly difficult for independent franchises.