Italy’s 2027 budget bill proposes €1,000 registration for non-prize amusement machines
Regulation2 min read
In brief
- Article 24 of Italy's 2027 budget bill proposes €1,000 per non-prize amusement machine plus a new self-certification.
- The government's technical report estimates €15m in additional revenue in 2027, assuming 15,000 machines.
- Eugenio Bernardi argues the procedure gives owners no definitive legal certainty.
Article 24 introduces a procedure that provides for a payment of €1,000 per machine and a new self-certification, with estimated revenue of €15 million. Assuming 15,000 machines are involved, the government expects additional revenue of €15 million in 2027.
Owners will have to file a new substitute declaration of conformity with the technical rules and pay €1,000 for each machine by 30 April 2027. The provision refers to machines of letters a) and c) installed before 1 January 2003 and to those of categories c-bis) and c-ter), as long as they are still installed on 31 December 2026. Eugenio Bernardi writes that failing to meet the obligations means the temporary nulla osta loses effect and the machines are confiscated. In Bernardi's opinion, the sole positive element of Article 24 is raising the maximum cost of a game from 1 to 2 euros for machines under paragraph 7, letter a), such as cranes.
Bernardi describes the rules introduced in 2021 for amusement machines without cash prizes as problematic. He points to the five successive amendments and extensions of the transitional regime as proof that the rules were badly conceived and badly applied. In his account, the customs and monopolies agency itself recognised these difficulties, most recently in a determination dated 17 December 2025. Bernardi says that official ADM documentation, which he obtained through an access-to-records request, shows about 68,000 machines were first self-certified. Of those, 53,000 had been brought into the exempt categories through the AMEE list, while about 15,000 remained subject to technical checks.
Bernardi argues that owners are asked to pay €1,000 and file a new self-certification without any certainty about their machines' definitive regularity. He says that, especially for older machines, arcade owners often lack the technical documentation and cannot practically recover it. In his view, the bill appears to shift the economic cost and responsibility for an unresolved matter onto owners once again.