Frozen legal market amid fragmented regulation<\/p>\n
EGP-FIPE, which represents operators as part of the Italian Federation of Public Establishments within Confcommercio, flagged that the legal gambling market\u2019s development had been stalled by\u00a0repeated extensions of national gambling concessions, combined with municipal and regional regulations. <\/p>\n
It argued the absence of a cohesive national reform framework had left the sector \u201cfrozen\u201d, impeding effective network planning and weakening protective measures aimed at problem gambling.<\/p>\n
According to EGP-FIPE president Emmanuele Cangianelli: \u201cThe system is stuck between extensions and non\u2011homogeneous territorial rules. This block prevents serious planning of the network and weakens precisely the protection tools that one would like to strengthen. Without a coherent national framework, prevention loses effectiveness and the space for uncontrolled supply (the black market) grows.\u201d<\/p>\n
Land-based restrictions deemed ineffective<\/p>\n
The association specifically criticised local restrictions on land-based operators which are commonly applied by municipalities, such as proximity buffers (known as \u201cdistanziometri\u201d) and strict opening-hour limits.\u00a0<\/p>\n
These measures, it argues, are largely ineffective for reducing problem gambling and instead often merely displace consumption , pushing players towards online platforms or the unregulated market where oversight is minimal or nonexistent.<\/p>\n
Cangianelli noted: \u201cThe evidence is that where the physical offer is rigidly restricted the problem is not reduced, but moved. Play heads online or to the underground market, where control is nil. This makes territorial instruments little effective with respect to the declared objective and introduces heavy distortions in terms of legality and the sustainability of the authorised network.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) recently called on the government to reconsider the country\u2019s strict betting advertising restrictions<\/a>. The outgoing president, Gabriele Gravina, criticised the current 2018 blanket ban on advertisement and sponsorships, calling it \u201clargely ineffective\u201d in reducing underage and illegal gambling.\u00a0<\/p>\n He cited findings from a 2022 Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry report that showed continued growth in these areas despite the advertising restrictions.\u00a0<\/p>\n Call for nationally coordinated prevention tools\u00a0<\/p>\n In its speech the EGP-FIPE also emphasised the importance of behavioural prevention tools that are already available or in development, including self-exclusion systems, play-behaviour tracking and advanced technological monitoring solutions.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, the association cautioned that these tools would yield inconsistent results without stable national governance to synchronise efforts across regions and municipalities.<\/p>\n \u201cA clear governance structure is needed. Regions may have a role, but within a shared national plan. Otherwise, partial interventions will continue to accumulate without solving the problem,\u201d said Cangianelli.<\/p>\n Italy\u2019s gambling landscape<\/p>\n Italy\u2019s gambling market, regulated by the Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli (ADM), ranks among Europe\u2019s largest. The past decade has seen exponential growth in online betting and gaming, while brick-and-mortar retail gambling venues face increasingly stringent municipal controls.<\/p>\n As it implemented a new licensing structure last year, more than 400 operating domains was compressed into 52 licences<\/a> in November 2025. The reform replaces a sprawling ecosystem with a tightly governed oligopoly of powerful incumbents.<\/p>\n This shift towards an \u201coligopoly-style\u201d market structure could concentrate revenues among fewer operators.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite this, Italy remains one of Europe\u2019s largest online gambling markets by turnover and tax yield. Licence revenues brought approximately \u20ac364 million ($424 million) to the state as of November last year.<\/p>\n Kathryn covers bitesize breaking news with a primary focus on EMEA and US legislation. A proud North Walian, fluent Welsh speaker and lifelong Wrexham FC fan \u2013 long before Hollywood came calling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The EGP-FIPE criticised local restrictions, calling them largely ineffective for reducing problem gambling. Italy\u2019s regulated gambling sector is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[214310,147820,102,479,1906,6623,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-633176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-egp-fipe","tag-gambling-regulatory-authority-of-ireland","tag-health","tag-italy","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Kathryn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/bG9jYWw6Ly8vaWdhbWluZ2J1c2luZXNzLmNvbS93cC1jb250ZW50L3VwbG9hZHMvMjAyNi8wMy9rYXRocnluLWV2YW5zLXByb2Zp.webp\")
<\/a>Kathryn Evans<\/a><\/p>\n