Italy's 2027 Budget Taps Gambling for €700m, Hits Slots and Halls
Italy's 2027 budget will pull €700m out of gambling. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni confirmed the figure at a press conference on 28 October, the same day the Council of Ministers approved the draft package. The whole thing runs to roughly €26bn, with energy companies facing a contribution of a similar size.
Which parts of the sector pay, Meloni didn't say. Her framing: the package targets no one, and those with fewer problems are being asked to help. The actual tax and concession measures haven't been published yet, and Parliament can still change the bill.
Note that the headline number is lower than the government's own forecast. Its draft budgetary plan expects €718m from gambling in 2027 and again in 2028, then €478m in 2029. Nearly €2bn across the three years.
A leaked draft, not final, points the cost at machines and land-based concessions. Land-based slot, betting and bingo concessions would run to 31 December 2029 for about €305m in 2027. The Gratta e Vinci scratchcard concession gets extended too, in exchange for an upfront payment.
Machine levies go up on top. The PREU levy on AWP slots would rise from 24% to 25% of stakes, raising an estimated €150m. VLTs would move from 8.6% to 9.6%, worth €165m. Add it up and the quantified gaming measures come to about €770m in 2027, which is more than Meloni cited.
Not one of those quantified items is an online levy. Venue operators, machine concessionaires and land-based licence holders carry the cost. Timing matters here. It lands just after Italy's online licence tender, so the retail side takes the hit and online brands sit outside it.
The retail reaction came within a day. EGP-FIPE, which represents venues offering licensed gaming, warned on 29 October that a higher machine levy would make at least 20% of specialist gaming halls unprofitable. Thousands of jobs at risk, the association said.
The wider market gives that warning some context. Italy's total gaming turnover hit €165.33bn in 2025, up 5% on 2024. Gross gaming spend, stakes minus winnings, came to €21.869bn, up 1.36%. State tax from gambling was €11.5bn in 2025, roughly flat on the €11.6bn of the year before.
Growth came from virtual betting (+23.14%) and online casino and cash games (+17.74%). So the tax base is broadly flat overall while some online verticals expand. A package weighted toward machines and halls leans on land-based products, not the online segments that actually grew.
Operators won't know the final shape until the bill clears Parliament. It now goes to the Chamber and the Senate, and both have to examine and approve it by the end of the year.