Gaming tax expert warns proposed Italian PREU increase could reduce revenue

Tax adviser and gaming sector expert Francesco Scardovi strongly criticised the decision to raise the PREU on gaming machines, an increase provided for in the 2027 budget law. He spoke at SiGMA Central Europe in Rome, and his message was that the increase risks producing effects contrary to those the Government expects. In his view, it could further reduce the sector's economic sustainability and, in the medium term, damage state revenue.

Scardovi said there have been two further increases since 2018 and that machine revenues have fallen from €6.2bn to €5bn. He also pointed to a growing fiscal and competitive imbalance between land-based and online gaming, saying the same game, played on a VLT or on an iPad, returns very different amounts to the player and pays very different taxation. According to the adviser, this disparity risks accentuating the shift in demand towards online play.

Scardovi drew attention to the gap between the initial revenue target of €700m and the later quantification in the measure, which would reach €950m in the first year. He said that removing the difference of €250m would probably avoid at least a large part of the PREU increase.

Scardovi said it was not clear why the Gratta e Vinci extension had been included at all. In his account, the concession expires in 2028, and at that point it could have generated an income of around one billion, or one billion and two. Instead, he noted, that concession is also being prolonged, to 2029. He also stated that he was not there to claim that online gaming pays little.

Scardovi said he speaks mainly in the interest of the Treasury, while also citing thousands of companies that he said risk collapse. He announced that he intends to bring these considerations to the parliamentary debate on the 2027 budget law, in particular during the hearings phase.