Italy Weighs a Three-Year Extension of Retail Concessions Worth Up to €500m

With the reorganisation of betting shops, gaming halls and machines abandoned in August, the Ministry of Economy and Finance is looking at extending the licences that expire in December to the end of 2029 and collecting the fees, according to reports on the 2027 Budget. A €1 billion scratch-card tender is also in the mix.

• Italy's Ministry of Economy and Finance is examining measures to raise €400 million to €500 million from the regulated gambling sector in the 2027 Budget Law, most of it from a three-year extension of land-based concessions due to expire at the end of 2026, SBC News reports
• An extension to the end of 2029 would keep annual fees flowing at €120 per amusement-with-prizes machine, €4,000 per video lottery terminal, €9,500 per betting agency, €5,700 per betting corner and €2,800 a month per bingo hall, worth €200 million to €250 million a year
• Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni instructed the ministry in August to end negotiations with the regions over the retail reorganisation, which had run almost three years; the failed tenders are estimated to have cost the state €1.5 billion in anticipated proceeds
• The Budget could also frame a tender for the scratch-card concession held by Brightstar Lottery until 30 September 2028, with a reported starting price of about €1 billion, and add a Lotto and SuperEnalotto draw worth about €50 million a year
• The proposals are provisional and not yet in the draft Budget Law, which is expected in October; Lottomatica has told investors the stalled talks affected its long-term planning

A Reform That Failed Is Being Replaced by a Renewal That Pays

Italy's land-based gambling concessions, which expire at the end of December, are likely to be extended for three years rather than re-tendered, under proposals the Ministry of Economy and Finance is examining for the 2027 Budget, according to SBC News. The ministry is looking at measures that could raise €400 million to €500 million from the regulated sector, and most of that would come from keeping the current licence holders in place until the end of 2029 and continuing to collect their annual fees.

The fees are set per outlet and per machine: €120 a year for each amusement-with-prizes machine and €4,000 for each video lottery terminal, €9,500 for a betting agency and €5,700 for a betting corner, and €2,800 a month for a bingo hall. Over three years the extension would be worth €200 million to €250 million a year to the Treasury, and would give the government time, the reports say, to test new gaming-machine requirements and return to the reorganisation later.

The reorganisation itself is dead for this parliament. In August Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told the ministry to end negotiations with the Conference of Regions and Autonomous Provinces over the distribution of betting shops, gaming halls and machines, ending almost three years of talks and removing the reform from the 2027 legislative agenda. The mandate under the Tax Delegation Law expired on 29 August without a political agreement between the state and the regions, and the tenders that were to have followed are estimated to have cost the state €1.5 billion in anticipated proceeds.

Two lottery items sit alongside. The Budget Law could set the framework for the next scratch-card concession, currently held by Brightstar Lottery under a licence running to 30 September 2028, with a reported starting price of about €1 billion under the single-concessionaire model; the concessionaire's 6% premium on roughly €8 billion of annual sales is worth close to €500 million a year. The government is encouraged by the Lotto process, which produced more than €2.2 billion in upfront revenue, though a scratch-card award would not pay before 2028. A digital Lotto receipt, worth about €15 million, and an additional weekly Lotto and SuperEnalotto draw, worth about €50 million a year, are also under consideration. Everything remains provisional and could be amended or withdrawn before the Budget Law is presented, expected in October.

Operators had wanted something else. Lottomatica chief executive Guglielmo Angelozzi told investors that the stalled negotiations had affected the group's long-term financial planning, and the sector had expected a new generation of long-term licences rather than a further temporary extension of the kind it has lived under for years. It is not yet clear whether every licensee will take a three-year renewal on the current terms.

Italy Has Completed the Half of the Reform That Was Easy to Collect On

The Meloni government's gambling programme had two parts: a new online licensing regime, which it delivered, with 46 bidders paying €7 million each, and a reorganisation of the physical network, which required agreement with regions and municipalities that regulate distance rules, opening hours and local caps. The first produced upfront revenue and a consolidated market; the second produced three years of talks and nothing. The proposal now is to monetise the failure: keep collecting fees from a network whose shape the state could not agree, and call it a bridge to a reform that is not on any agenda. For the Treasury it is money; for the Italian retail sector it is another extension of an interim status that has outlasted governments.

A Three-Year Licence Is Not an Asset Anyone Can Finance

Lottomatica's complaint is the operators' real objection. A concession that runs to 2029 with no successor regime defined cannot support investment in premises, machines or staff on anything but a short horizon, and it leaves the largest listed operator in the market, which has just absorbed Cirsa, planning its Italian retail business on a rolling basis. The alternative, a re-tender without the regional settlement, would have been worse for incumbents, so most will sign. The state gets its €250 million a year and the sector gets certainty until the next extension, which is the arrangement both sides have complained about since the last one.

Lotteries Are Where the Government Actually Expects to Make Money

The scratch-card tender at a reported €1 billion floor, after Lotto brought in €2.2 billion, is the number the Treasury cares about, and the extension of retail concessions is the arrangement that lets it wait for it. Brightstar's licence runs to 2028, so a 2027 Budget can define the tender without collecting on it, which is why the concession fees carry the year. The pattern is consistent with a government that has found lottery monopolies easier to sell than a betting-shop map to negotiate.

Italy's 2027 gambling revenue plan is a renewal, a tender and a draw. The reform that was supposed to replace all three has been quietly filed under the next parliament.