Italy's online gaming reorder decree enters into force
Legislative Decree 41/2024 took effect on 4 April 2024, rebuilding Italy's online concession model and setting new player-protection duties.
By Oliwer Brewitz, Head of Marketing
Key changes
- Online concessions awarded by tender for nine years, without renewal
- One website on a national top-level domain per concession, not shareable with third parties
- Concessionaires must invest 0.2% of net revenue (max EUR 1 million a year) in responsible-gambling communication
- Top-up point register created, EUR 100 annual fee and EUR 100 weekly top-up limit
- Concession obligations, fee and tax regime fixed for the whole term
What changed
Legislative Decree No. 41 of 25 March 2024, adopted under the fiscal reform delegation in Article 15 of Law 111/2023, was published in Gazzetta Ufficiale No. 78 of 3 April 2024 and entered into force on 4 April 2024. It is now the primary law for remote gaming. Online concessions are awarded by public tender, last nine years from award and cannot be renewed. Games listed in Article 6(1)(a) to (f), including betting, skill games and poker, casino-style games and bingo, are open to multiple concessionaires; lotteries and numerical games stay with single concessionaires. The decree also regulates top-up points (punti vendita ricarica) for the first time, with a register costing EUR 100 a year and a EUR 100 weekly limit on top-ups made there, and it fixes the obligations, fee and tax regime of a concession for its whole term.
What it means for advertising
The Decreto Dignità ban on gambling advertising (Article 9 of Decree-Law 87/2018) is not lifted by the decree. Article 15 instead requires each concessionaire to invest 0.2% of net revenue each year, capped at EUR 1 million, in information campaigns or responsible-communication initiatives on themes set by a government commission at the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. Each concession is tied to one website on a national top-level domain owned and run by the concessionaire, which cannot be made available to third parties. This is likely to end the multi-skin brand model and concentrate any permitted brand visibility on a single site per concession.
What operators should do
Map every brand and domain to the concession it will sit under and plan the consolidation required by the single-site rule. Budget for the 0.2% responsible-communication spend as a recurring line from the start of the new concession. Review top-up point arrangements against the register and the weekly cash limit. Treat the decree's player-protection list in Article 15 (self-set time and spend limits, deposit limits, in-session messages, self-exclusion, contact channels, risk monitoring) as the baseline that ADM technical rules will build on.
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