Italy’s Prime Minister Rejects Final Terms of Retail Gambling Overhaul

Italy’s land-based gambling sector remains in limbo after Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s office declined to sign off on the final terms of the country’s long-awaited retail gambling reorganization. The rejection sends the Decreto di Riordino del Gioco Fisico back to the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) for further revision, extending a process that has already dragged on for two years.

The breakdown centers on a dispute between the MEF and the Conference of Regions and Autonomous Provinces over how to standardize rules for betting shops, slot machine venues, and bingo halls across Italy’s 20 regions. Meloni’s Undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council, Alfredo Mantovano, confirmed to the outlet AgiProNews that any final decree will not alter the minimum distance protections regional authorities currently enforce around gambling venues.

Distance Rules at the Heart of the Impasse

The MEF had hoped to replace Italy’s patchwork of regional restrictions with a single national framework covering venue certification, operating hours, sensitive-location definitions, and concession requirements. That plan would have set certified venues at a minimum of 100 meters from schools, addiction treatment centers, and hospitals, with non-certified venues required to stay at least 200 meters away. Regional governments, which have long controlled these buffer zones independently, pushed back on ceding that authority to Rome, and the two sides have been unable to close the gap despite two years of negotiation.

The proposed reorganization also called for a roughly 10% cut to the national footprint of slot and VLT locations, bringing the total down to about 40,000 outlets, while capping betting shops at 10,000 and eliminating the current distinction between dedicated betting shops and betting “corners” inside bars and other venues. A tiered certification system, overseen by Italy’s Customs and Monopolies Agency (ADM), would have rewarded compliant operators with more flexible hours and higher machine allowances in exchange for measures like video surveillance and separated gaming areas for minors.

Billions in Concession Revenue Now on Hold

Beyond the regulatory framework, the stalled decree also threatens the government’s plan to launch new concession tenders for slot machines, sports betting rights, and bingo halls — auctions previously projected to generate between €1.8 billion and €2 billion in upfront revenue. Without a resolved framework for where new venues can legally operate, running those tenders becomes far more difficult, a problem that has already dogged prior licensing rounds in Italy.

Complicating matters further is a hard deadline: the government’s fiscal delegation powers, which authorize it to execute this kind of structural reform, expire on August 29. Even if the Council of Ministers approves a revised decree before then, the measure would still need sign-off from parliamentary committees and the regional conference — a multi-step process that looks increasingly unlikely to finish on time.

For now, existing retail concessions covering AWPs, VLTs, sports betting, and bingo will simply be extended to December 31, 2026, continuing a “proroga onerosa,” or paid extension, regime that has already kept much of the sector in a holding pattern for years. Industry analysts expect further one- or two-year extensions to follow, pushing any genuine overhaul of Italy’s retail gambling market well beyond its original timeline. Italy’s online gambling licensing framework, by contrast, already took effect last November, leaving the retail side as the clear outlier in the country’s broader regulatory modernization.