Meloni's Office Blocks Final Draft of Italy Retail Gambling Reform

A long-awaited shake-up of Italy's land-based gambling market has stalled after the Prime Minister's office rejected the final text of the reform decree and sent it back for further work. The move upends two years of negotiations between the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) and the Conference of Regions and Autonomous Provinces, which had been close to settling on compensation terms ahead of last week's setback.

Alfredo Mantovano, Undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council, confirmed that any eventual decree would preserve the existing minimum-distance rules enforced by regional authorities. These protections, which keep gambling venues away from schools and other sensitive locations, are non-negotiable. The MEF had wanted to replace the patchwork of regional rules with a unified national framework covering distance limits, opening hours, venue certification, and concession requirements. Regional governments, however, have resisted surrendering control, arguing that gambling is a public health issue best handled locally.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni had hoped to finalize the retail overhaul before the government's fiscal delegation powers lapse on August 29, following the November 2025 relaunch of Italy's online gambling market. That deadline now looks unrealistic. Even if the Council of Ministers approves the decree, the State-Regions Conference and parliamentary committees must still sign off, a process that could stretch well beyond the summer.

The impasse also threatens the planned tender for new retail gambling concessions. Talks had centered on finalizing compensation terms with the Conference, which represents 20 autonomous provinces and 110 municipalities. Without a deal on distance restrictions, operators cannot identify compliant sites for betting shops, slot machines, or bingo halls — a problem that has previously led to legal challenges against concession processes.

The financial stakes are significant: new concession auctions were expected to raise between €1.8 billion and €2 billion ($2.07 billion-$2.30 billion) in upfront licensing fees. The broader reform package also included a national definition of sensitive locations, harmonized operating hours, mandatory venue certification, a central operator registry, updated advertising rules, and technical standards for next-generation gaming machines. In the meantime, the government will extend existing retail concessions through December 31, 2026.

Analysts at Morgan Stanley warn that without renewed political engagement, the retail reform could be pushed back another one to two years while state and regional authorities keep negotiating. Industry group AGIC — whose members include Flutter Entertainment, Lottomatica, Entain, bet365, and Brightstar — has argued that repeated concession extensions have left the regulated retail market without long-term certainty for nearly a decade, discouraging investment and slowing modernization.

Parliament is due to reconvene in September, and Meloni is expected to prioritize passing the 2027 Budget. That leaves little room to revisit one of the coalition's thorniest regulatory disputes ahead of the 2027 elections. Leaving the issue unresolved also risks more friction with the courts, which already face a backlog of cases involving concession extensions and conflicts between state licensing objectives and local planning rules.