Italy’s 2027 budget extends bingo concessions to 2029 with turnover-based payments
Regulation2 min read
In brief
- Italy's 2027 budget law provides for paid Bingo concession extensions to 31 December 2029.
- Monthly payments will be linked to each hall's turnover from the previous year.
- Retroactive recalculation from 1 January 2018 uses 81 bands, with payments of €3,250 to €11,250.
Italy's 2027 budget law provides for a paid extension, until 31 December 2029, of the concessions for Bingo operation, which currently expire at the end of 2026.
The main change is that the monthly payments will no longer be a fixed amount but will be set in proportion to the turnover of each hall. The new mechanism links the monthly amount owed by concessionaires to the turnover actually produced by each hall, identified on the basis of the total value of Bingo cards bought and sold in the previous year. The payments apply monthly for the 2027-2029 period.
The measure also redetermines retroactively, from 1 January 2018, the fees for the provisional continuation of the concessions. It introduces a system of 81 turnover bands, with payments ranging from €3,250 to €11,250. The technical report says the monthly payment rises by €100 for each €200,000 increase in annual turnover. This replaces the previous system based on a fixed, flat-rate fee.
Amounts paid in excess can be offset, and any debts can be paid in up to 12 monthly instalments. The payment procedures are to be set by a later measure of the Agenzia delle dogane e dei monopoli. The provision also reduces to 15,000 metres the minimum road distance from other Bingo halls that applies when a concession is transferred to another municipality.
The provision is described as matching a requirement pointed out by the Council of State, that the Agenzia use its power and duty to redetermine the terms of the concession relationship. A positive financial effect of €19.76m had been estimated for 2026 under the fixed fee. For 2027, the estimate is that redetermining the fee yields positive effects of about €4.64m. The calculation also reflects that, in 2020 and 2021, years linked to the COVID 2019 epidemic emergency, fees were paid for 7 months out of 12.