Italy’s government is counting on around €700 million in extra revenue from the gambling industry under its proposed 2027 budget, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni confirmed after the Council of Ministers approved the draft on October 28. Gambling will chip in alongside financial institutions and energy companies to help pay for a €26 billion spending and tax package in 2027, rising to €27 billion in 2028.
The Ministry of Economy and Finance had already pencilled in extra gambling revenue in the draft budgetary plan it sent to the European Commission in October, projecting the equivalent of 0.03% of GDP in both 2027 and 2028 before dropping to 0.02% in 2029. Meloni’s €700 million is a rough target rather than a single announced tax rise, with the government weighing several different ways to pull more money out of operators.
Land-based gambling would take most of the hit under the draft measures. Proposals reviewed by Italian trade publication AGIMEG would raise the PREU tax on slot machines from 24% to 25% and on video lottery terminals from 8.6% to 9.6%, while qualifying machines with a minimum 70% payout would get a reduced 20% rate along with higher maximum stakes and prizes. The accompanying technical report puts the extra revenue from machine-related changes at €334 million in 2027.
Existing retail gambling concessions would be extended to December 31, 2029 instead of going straight to new licensing tenders, with operators paying higher fees to hang on to their licences. The technical report projects €114.5 million a year from betting concessions and €166.5 million from gaming machine networks, bingo concessions would be extended as well, and the Gratta e Vinci scratchcard concession could bring in another €188 million in payments during 2027.
Newer calculations suggest the total could end up well above what Meloni first announced. AGIMEG’s breakdown of the technical report finds roughly €952 million in positive financial effects for 2027, covering concession fees, gaming machine taxes, extra lottery draws, and the recovery of unpaid amounts from a 2015 levy. Those figures mix different kinds of revenue, one-off payments included, rather than adding up to a single recurring tax increase.
The industry has already pushed back. Trade association EGP-FIPE warned that higher gaming machine taxes could leave around 20% of specialised gambling venues financially unviable, potentially costing thousands of jobs, and argued that repeatedly extending existing concessions at higher prices instead of running new tenders just piles on more uncertainty for operators. It called on the government to look at the financial state of the retail sector before locking anything in.
Online operators are in a different spot, having only recently moved into Italy’s revised licensing system, which brought in a €7 million licence fee per brand in November 2025. Industry lawyers have warned that hitting them with big new charges so soon after that overhaul could undermine their investment plans. The draft measures reported so far focus mainly on physical gambling venues, though the full tax arrangements still need parliamentary approval.
Both chambers of Italy’s parliament have to pass the budget before the end of December for it to take effect in 2027. Lawmakers can still change the proposed tax rates and concession terms, so the amount the government actually collects from the gambling industry may end up different from its current estimates.