The latest data from Italy’s regulated gambling industry shows a market undergoing major structural change. Although the overall turnover reached €157.4 billion in 2024, a 42% rise from 2019, the underlying picture reveals a landscape reshaped by digital growth and a contracting retail sector. Out of this total, €135.8 billion was returned to players as winnings, confirming €21.5 billion as the actual amount spent by Italians on gambling activity. This combination of expansion and transformation is reflected across both the detailed figures and the independent analyses included in the 2025 CGIA di Mestre Report.
Online Expansion Drives New Market Dynamics
Digital gaming has become the driving force of the industry’s evolution. According to the CGIA–As.Tro findings presented at Palazzo Wedekind on 16 October, online gambling expanded by 153% between 2019 and 2024. Retail gaming, by contrast, remained 12% below pre-pandemic levels. The report highlights that online turnover reached €92 billion in 2024, with €87 billion paid out as winnings. This left €5 billion in actual expenditure, divided into €1.1 billion in tax revenue and €3.8 billion retained as margin across the supply chain.
Massimiliano Pucci, President of As.Tro, described this shift as a reflection of evolving consumer behaviour: “The growth of online gaming reflects a profound change in player habits, increasingly oriented towards digital channels and remote play.” He added that the ongoing rise of digital engagement “calls for thoughtful reform to ensure stability within the sector, protecting the legal network and those who operate responsibly within it. Strengthening legal gaming means defending an essential economic and social asset that guarantees secure state revenue, qualified employment, and safeguards citizens from illegal risks.”
Online play remains the sector’s primary growth engine. The outlet noted that digital platforms returned €87 billion in winnings during 2024 and underscored Pucci’s call for a balanced regulatory response to safeguard consumers and legal operators.
Regulatory Reform Reshapes Licensing and Market Structure
Policy changes introduced in 2024 played a significant role in redirecting the sector. Legislative Decree No. 41 redefined the framework for online gaming, prompting the Customs and Monopolies Agency (ADM) to award 52 new licences to 46 operators – 33 domestic and 13 international. This exceeded the initial projection of 50 licences and generated an additional €14 million, bringing total licence revenue to €364 million.
The new regulatory structure includes a single-domain requirement for each licensee to reduce fragmentation and enhance oversight. By 2026, further measures will directly affect online top-up points (PVRs), with expectations that their numbers will decrease under the updated licensing conditions to improve market transparency.
Land-Based Gaming Continues to Contract
While digital gaming pushes forward, the physical channel continues to lose ground. Only a few categories—Lotto and Lotteries (+18%), Sports Games (+33%), and Bingo (+1%)—showed increases compared to 2019. The substantial declines occurred among gaming machines: Slot Machines (AWP) and Video Lotteries (VLT) collectively fell by 30%, losing €13.9 billion in revenue since 2019. In 2024, machine turnover dropped to €32.6 billion, a 3.3% decline from 2023.
Although the number of VLT units has stabilised, performance remains far below pre-pandemic levels. Total VLT turnover in 2024 was €16.6 billion, only slightly down from the prior year but still nearly 30% lower than 2019. Venue consolidation continues as well, with average hall size increasing from 10.7 to 12.6 machines between 2015 and 2024. At the same time, distribution has decreased significantly: 3,000 AWP machines and 1,100 outlets disappeared in 2024 alone. Compared with 2019, the market now contains 16,000 fewer machines and 8,400 fewer venues, particularly affecting bars, tobacconists, newsstands, and restaurants.
Employment and business activity followed the same downward trend. Across five years, 10,000 jobs and 9,900 businesses were lost. By the end of 2024, companies operating in the AWP/VLT supply chain totaled 50,516, supported by an estimated 41,000 full-time equivalent workers.
Fiscal Impact and the Need for Long-Term Balance
Despite reduced margins and shrinking retail activity, the gambling sector remains a major contributor to public finances. The Single Gaming Tax generated €5.2 billion in 2024, roughly €1.5 billion less than in 2019. Additional contributions—income taxes, regional and local levies, and social security payments—added €788 million, raising the total fiscal impact to approximately €6 billion.
Both the CGIA–As.Tro analysis and the Tribuna article emphasise the need to stabilise the sector as it transitions. Online offerings continue to grow, but policymakers face the challenge of sustaining legal operators, maintaining employment, and ensuring continued state revenue while preventing illegal market expansion. As Pucci remarked, “Strengthening legal gaming means defending an essential economic and social safeguard that guarantees steady state revenue, quality employment, and protection for citizens from illegal markets.”
Source:
Legal gambling in Italy: €21.5 billion lost in 2024, a new balance between online and retailn, sigma.world, November 2025
