Is online gambling legal in Italy?
Online betting, casino games, poker and bingo have been legal in Italy for licensed operators since the 2000s, with the Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli (ADM) as regulator. Legislative Decree 41/2024 rewrote the online rules and led to a 2025 tender in which any qualifying company could buy a nine-year concession for €7 million; 52 concessions went to 46 operators and took effect on 13 November 2025, each tied to a single .it website. Concessionaires pay 25.5% of GGR on online casino games and 24.5% on online betting plus an annual fee of 3% of net gaming revenue. Gambling advertising has been banned since the 2018 Dignity Decree. Italy is Europe's largest gambling market by wagers, with €165.3 billion staked in 2025 and €21.9 billion of spend across all channels.
| Vertical | Status in Italy |
|---|---|
| Online casino | Regulated |
| Sports betting | Regulated |
| Online poker | Regulated |
| Lottery | Monopoly |
| Social casino (free to play) | Permitted |
Regulated: Private operators can hold a local licence for online casino and/or betting.
Who regulates gambling in Italy?
- Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli (ADM) — State agency that awards and supervises gaming concessions, certifies platforms and games, collects gaming taxes, runs the national self-exclusion register and blocks unlicensed sites
Italy gambling licence: how it works
Online gambling is operated under ADM concessions awarded by public tender. The 2025 tender, run under Legislative Decree 41/2024, accepted applications between 31 March and 30 May 2025 from companies established in the EU or EEA with a registered office in Italy for tax purposes, sound finances, anti-mafia clearances and ISO 27001, 9001 and 26000 certifications. Each concession costs €7 million, paid €4 million on award and €3 million on launch, lasts nine years and covers betting, casino games, poker, bingo and skill games under one umbrella, with each product then certified by ADM. The single-website rule ended the former skin model: a concession supports one .it domain. Because the tender window is closed, a company without a concession can enter only by acquiring a concessionaire or waiting for a future tender. Land-based betting shops, slot halls and bingo halls run on repeatedly extended concessions pending a separate reform.
What an applicant needs
- Company established in the EU or EEA with a registered office in Italy for tax purposes
- Financial standing and anti-mafia declarations for the company and its owners
- ISO 27001, ISO 9001 and ISO 26000 certifications
- Gaming platform and each game certified by ADM, with servers in Italy or the EEA and real-time ADM access
- Security bond of €500,000 fixed plus a variable component tied to the prior year's activity
- One .it website per concession; connection to the national self-exclusion register (RUA)
- Annual investment of 0.2% of net revenue (capped at €1 million) in responsible-gaming communication
Gambling taxes in Italy
- Operators: Single tax on GGR: 25.5% for online casino games, bingo and other remote games; 24.5% for online sports betting; retail betting 20.5%. Plus the 3% annual concession fee on net gaming revenue and corporate income tax (IRES) and regional tax (IRAP).
- Players: None on online casino and betting winnings, which are taxed at operator level; a 20% withholding applies to prizes above €500 on lotteries, Lotto-type games and VLTs.
- Also: Italy collected about €11.5 billion in gambling tax revenue in 2025 across all channels; the remote and betting segment's single tax rose 17.6% to €1.71 billion.
Advertising, player protection, KYC and payments
Advertising
The Dignity Decree (Decree-Law 87/2018) has banned advertising and sponsorship of gambling with cash prizes since 2019, including sports sponsorship, with narrow exceptions and AGCOM guidance allowing informational content. Proposals to soften the ban for sponsorship resurface regularly but none had passed as of September 2026.
Responsible gaming
Mandatory deposit limits set at registration, self-exclusion through the national register (RUA) with cross-operator effect, session and loss information, and the 0.2% net-revenue contribution to responsible-gaming campaigns set by a government commission.
Identity and age verification
Age 18. Accounts are opened with the Italian tax code and an identity document; identity must be verified before withdrawals and dormant accounts are closed with balances returned.
Payments
Cards, bank transfer, PostePay, e-wallets and PayPal through authorized payment providers; deposits and withdrawals use instruments in the player's name and cryptoassets are not permitted. Retail top-up points (PVR) remain subject to registration rules under litigation before the Council of State.
Notable restrictions
- Blanket ban on gambling advertising and sponsorship since 2019
- One .it website per €7 million concession; no skins
- Lotteries reserved to state concessionaires (Lotto, SuperEnalotto, Gratta e Vinci)
- Registered office in Italy and ISO certifications required
- Servers in Italy or the EEA with ADM real-time data access
Italy iGaming market: size, players and payments
MEF report to Parliament for 2025: total wagers €165.3 billion (+5%), spend (wagers minus winnings) about €21.9 billion and tax revenue about €11.5 billion; remote gaming and betting collection reached €109.3 billion (+8.7%). Industry trackers put online casino spend above €3 billion in 2025, with a record €333.7 million in December 2025.
About 6.2 million online gaming accounts were opened in Italy during 2025 (MEF); fixed-odds sports betting is now placed mainly online (72% of collection).
Online casino play is described by trackers as mobile-first and oriented to live casino and game shows.
46 concessionaires (33 Italian, 13 foreign) from 13 November 2025; Lottomatica led online casino with about 31% of December 2025 spend, followed by Sisal, Betsson, Admiral and Greentube, with Snaitech, Sky Bet Italia, bet365 and Eurobet among the other major brands.
Timeline: how Italy got here
- 2006Bersani decree opens remote betting to EU-licensed operators under ADM (then AAMS) concessions
- 2011Online casino games become licensable, with online slots following in 2012
- 2018-07Dignity Decree bans gambling advertising and sponsorship from 2019
- 2024-03Legislative Decree 41/2024 reorganizes online gaming and mandates a new concession tender
- 2024-12ADM publishes the online concession tender: €7 million per nine-year concession
- 2025-09ADM awards 52 concessions to 46 operators after a March–May application window
- 2025-11New concessions take effect on 13 November; old licences expire
- 2026-08Prime Minister's office rejects the land-based reform decree; retail concessions extended to end 2026
Outlook
The online regime is set for nine years, so attention turns to certification of new products under ADM protocols, the fate of retail top-up points before the Council of State, and whether Parliament softens the advertising ban. The land-based reform collapsed in August 2026 when the government rejected the draft decree, leaving betting shops, slot halls and bingo halls on concessions extended to 31 December 2026 with further extensions likely. Tax rates were stable as of September 2026, but budget laws have adjusted them before.
Launching in Italy with GameBridge
Turnkey (your licence, our platform). ADM concessions are held by the operator and tied to a single .it site, so an Italian brand runs on GameBridge under the operator's concession; GameBridge holds no Italian concession and cannot offer entry to companies without one.
An Italian deployment uses Italian as the site language, a euro wallet, PostePay and card rails on request and geo-controls that admit residents after tax-code and identity verification. The compliance layer implements registration deposit limits, RUA self-exclusion checks, ADM data feeds in the required protocols and dormant-account handling, while the CRM is locked to the advertising ban. Every GameBridge Studios and Originals version ships with the documentation ADM certification requires, and the aggregated catalog is curated to studios already certified for Italy.
- Italian site language and euro wallet
- PostePay and card rails on request
- Tax-code registration checks and RUA self-exclusion lookup
- ADM protocol data feeds for betting and casino
- CRM and bonus engine locked to the advertising ban
- Certification package for ADM game approval
Italian lobbies are slot- and live-casino-led with game shows growing fast, and Serie A betting drives the sportsbook; the aggregated catalog is curated to ADM-certified studios and GameBridge Studios builds exclusives to the operator's brief with the certification package included.
Frequently asked questions
Is online gambling legal in Italy?
How much does an Italian online gambling licence cost?
Can a new operator enter Italy now?
What is the gambling tax rate in Italy?
Is gambling advertising allowed in Italy?
How does GameBridge help operators in Italy?
Sources and review
Reviewed against the sources below on 11 September 2026. Regulation changes; confirm the current position with local counsel before launch.
- ADM determination awarding the remote gaming concessions (17 September 2025) — Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli (via WH Partners), accessed 2026-09-11
- Online gaming: the new licensing regime begins today — PressGiochi, accessed 2026-09-11
- New tender for Italian online gaming licenses – FAQs — GamingTechLaw (DLA Piper), accessed 2026-09-11
- The Italian iGaming shake-up of 2026: important regulations and changes — Equilex, accessed 2026-09-11
- Dossier Camera: nel 2025 spesa giochi 21,9 miliardi di euro, circa 11 miliardi all'Erario — AGIMEG, accessed 2026-09-11
- Meloni rejects Italy's retail gambling reform decree — The iGaming EU, accessed 2026-09-11
Regulatory summaries are provided for orientation only and are not legal advice. Licensing requirements change; we validate them with you during scoping.