The Only Gambling Number Italy Has Decided Is the One It Expects to Collect

The gambling line is one of the few in the package with a figure attached and no mechanism behind it yet.

Where the Rest of the Money Comes From

Meloni put the whole budget at “around 26 billion euros”. Reporting around the approval gives a range of “altogether between 23.5 and 26 billion euros”, with the coverage package itself quantified at “23.5 billion euros”.

Then come the 14.4 billion of the national safeguard clause for defence and energy, the around 5 billion for banks and insurers — “credit institutions and insurance companies” — which the industry is contesting as it signed a three-year 10 billion deal last year, and an increase in tobacco excise that could see cigarette prices go up.

Meloni also said: “With this Budget Law we confirm all the measures included in the previous budget package”, a continuation worth roughly 9 billion on its own.

Everything That Would Raise the EUR 700m Is Still a Hypothesis

On gambling machines, an increase in the PREU for VLTs and slots is under consideration — “an increase of up to one percentage point”.

An extension of between two and three years at a higher than usual price of retail concessions for scommesse, slot, VLT and Bingo gambling is also planned. This is what the bill calls “between two and three years”, at charges “significantly higher”. Regularisation of LAN and eSports venues. And a three-year extension of the Gratta e Vinci concession, which runs until September 2028, with a payment tied to the base price that would be set at auction.

The Bill Still Has to Survive Two Chambers

What the Council of Ministers approved is a bill on gambling; as a bill, it is subject to amendments and final approval from the Camera and Senato, before it will become law. The two houses must finalize the legislation by 31 December 2026 for it to come into force from 1 January 2027.

All this translates into a two-month window for lawmakers to shape the industry, with the 700 million euro government revenue as the only certainty. The industry’s own exposure – which licence class pays, at what rate, for how many years — is what the chambers will be writing.

RU