ACADI representative warns Italy’s budget measures could strain gaming-machine operators
Regulation2 min read
In brief
- ACADI-Confcommercio's Geronimo Cardia said Italy's budget measures aggravate problems for the gaming-machine sector.
- Cardia said the PREU cut was four points against a five-point payout rise.
- He said the extension fee rose from €2,000 to €2,500 per machine.
Geronimo Cardia, who represents ACADI-Confcommercio, said that measures in Italy's budget law aggravate unresolved structural problems in the country's public gaming sector. He spoke on a panel titled "The Italian Public Gaming Market: Current State and Future Prospects".
In 2025, Cardia recalled, ACADI submitted a set of proposals aimed at supporting the sector while it waits for the market overhaul. Among them were a cut in PREU to allow higher payout, a top prize raised to €200 and a stake raised to €2. Cardia observed that PREU fell by only four points, whereas payout rose by five. The segment was described during the speech as already shrinking by between 5% and 10% each year. Cardia said the sector has steadily lost ground since 2018, with contractions of around 10% a year.
On margins, Cardia said that a payout of 70% combined with a PREU of 20% would leave supply-chain margins at 10%, against 12% at present.
On video lottery terminals (VLTs), Cardia criticised a planned further PREU increase that would not come with the rebalancing measures available for other types of machine. Among the association's requests for VLTs is the option to use POS terminals for payments.
Cardia described the extensions of machine concessions as technical, made necessary because new tenders cannot go ahead owing to unresolved regulatory and territorial issues. He said the cost of the extension rose from €2,000 to €2,500 per machine, an increase of 25%. He added that the burden of the extension is higher than the one set in 2024.
Cardia argued that scratch cards are treated differently, because the concession agreement for that segment would be lengthened. In his account, the extension would spare a tender scheduled for 2028, which he estimated at roughly one billion euros. The reference was to statements by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni calling for a shared sacrifice that spares no specific category.
ACADI proposes allowing operators to join the concession extension only in part. It also proposes a review clause for the tax measures and extension charges, to be activated after one year. Cardia cited figures indicating that small and medium-sized enterprises involve about 130,000 of the 145,000 workers in the segment.