Italy 2027 Budget Gambling Tax: Cabinet Asks the Sector for €700 Million, Slots and Concessions in Focus

Italy's Council of Ministers approved a 2027 budget bill of about €26 billion on 28 October 2026 that asks the gambling sector for €700 million, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni told reporters in Rome, though the government has not yet said which games or taxes will carry the bill. The money is one of several new levies funding tax cuts and higher health spending, alongside more than €5 billion from banks and insurers and about €700 million from energy companies.

Meloni gave the figure at the press conference after the Cabinet meeting. "Dal settore dei giochi arriverà un contributo di 700 milioni di euro" ("the gaming sector will provide a contribution of €700 million"), she said, according to Agipronews. Jamma quoted her as saying the budget was "not a budget against anyone."

What the official documents say

The only official number so far is in Italy's Draft Budgetary Plan (Documento Programmatico di Bilancio, DPB), which the Cabinet approved on 13 October and sent to the European Commission and Parliament. Its coverage table lists "Misure in materia di giochi" (gaming measures) as a permanent revenue item, not a one-off.

The DPB itself only gives shares of GDP. The euro figures come from Italian press readings of the document and add up to about €1.9 billion over three years. Meloni's €700 million is a rounded version of the 2027 figure. The plan describes the budget as financed in part by measures on "the financial sector and on gaming," without naming them.

The size of the package also grew between the two steps. Teleborsa estimated the DPB package at about €23.5 billion gross; Adnkronos and other outlets put the bill approved on 28 October at about €26 billion.

Where the money is expected to come from

Until the bill's articles and technical report are published, the detail rests on press reports, which point to land-based gaming first.

PREU (prelievo erariale unico) is the levy on money staked in Italian gaming machines. It is collected by the Customs and Monopolies Agency (Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli, ADM), the national gambling regulator. According to Agipronews, Il Sole 24 Ore puts the total of these measures above €900 million a year, more than the DPB figure.

Concessions are an obvious lever. Land-based licenses for gaming machines, retail betting and bingo run out on 31 December 2026, and a plan to redraw where venues may operate stalled after the national government and the regions failed to agree. Without a tender, Rome has to extend the existing concessions and can charge for doing so. According to iGaming Business, the current paid extension brings in about €232.76 million a year.

Lotteries are harder to touch. IGT's LottoItalia consortium won the Lotto concession in 2025; its nine-year contract fixes the retailer and operator commission at 6%, so cutting it mid-term would be legally awkward.

Online operators watch the fine print

Italy's online licensees have their own exposure. Each paid €7 million for a nine-year license under the online licensing reform that ADM opened to bidders, and the new regime went live in November 2025. Licensees also pay a yearly concession fee of 3% of net margin and must certify their systems under new technical rules by 15 February 2027.

Lawyers quoted by iGaming Business expect most of the burden to fall on machines and concession renewals. Some argue the licensing law promises online operators a stable tax regime for the length of their concessions, and that a new levy would damage trust in the system. Operators also cannot easily recoup costs through marketing, because the 2018 Dignity Decree bans gambling advertising, a rule that Italy's sports decree raised the prospect of reforming.

Industry warns of closures and a bigger black market

EGP-Fipe, the gaming association within the Fipe Confcommercio business federation, said a higher machine levy would make at least 20% of specialized gaming halls unprofitable. It cited a 2025 Ministry of Economy and Finance report showing gaming takings down almost 35% from 2019, a loss of about €1.4 billion for the state, and called for tenders on schedule rather than repeated paid extensions.

Receipts were already weakening. Italy's gambling tax revenue fell for the first time in 2024, and iGaming Business reports that the Court of Auditors estimates a further drop of about €200 million in the first eight months of 2026. Giulio Coraggio of DLA Piper told the outlet he doubts the target can be met "in the way the government expects," warning that thinner margins push players to offshore sites that pay no Italian tax.

Italy is not alone. On the same day, UK Chancellor John Healey's Budget delivered a Machine Games Duty rise from 20% to 25%, and a 1% EU-wide iGaming levy has been floated in Brussels.

What happens next

The bill goes to the Chamber of Deputies first this year. Its Budget Committee will hold hearings and vote on amendments, with a floor vote expected in early December, before the Senate takes it up. Parliament must approve the budget by 31 December 2026, or Italy moves to a provisional budget. Operators will only know which segments pay, and how much, once the gambling articles and their technical report are published.

Status reviewed on 29 October 2026. The gaming share is taken from Italy's Draft Budgetary Plan and the Prime Minister's statement; individual measures are attributed to the outlets that reported them and are not yet confirmed in the bill's text. More legislation news and EMEA coverage.