Three petitions lodged by Italian courts and relating to restrictions on collections from gaming and betting are pending before the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The first of these was lodged by the court in Santa Maria Capua Vetere on 11 July and relates to the criminal proceedings against Raffaele Arrichiello.

The regional rankings for gaming takings in Italy see Lombardy in first place for the opening five months of the year, with revenues of €5.7bn (more than €1.1bn in May alone), followed by Lazio with nearly €3.5bn (€700m in May) and Campania with around €3.2bn (€610m in May).

Takings from gaming in Italy during the first five months of 2011 amount to €30bn and show a positive trend, according to the figures from regulator AAMS released by Agicos: the data, in fact, reveal an increase of 19 percent over the same period of 2010, when takings reached €25.3bn. The month of May has contributed over €6bn to the total.

Ritzio Italy has rolled out an additional 32 VLTs to its Vulcano della Fortuna properties, following a pilot of eight Lottomatica devices at its La Spezia site in April. With the addition of the new units, the firm now has VLTs at six locations. And it plans to offer VLTs in all of its dozen Italian sites by the end of the summer.

The scheduled date of 16 May for a new invitation to tender for concessions to manage online slots as well as video lottery terminals (VLTs) has come and gone, and now one can only wait for the next date to be announced. It will certainly not be before September, say the usual well-informed sources, to coincide with the resumption of work after the summer break.

Minimum distances from schools and youth centres, and incentives for those who choose not to install gaming machines on their premises, are just two of the ideas proposed by the Trento chamber of commerce, according to its spokesman Alessandro Olivi.

Abruzzo regional councillor Maurizio Acerbo has presented a draft bill that seeks to ban video lottery terminals (VLTs) and slot machines in the Abruzzo region. And to think that the VLTs were only introduced into Italy in order to rebuild Abruzzo after the 2009 earthquake there...

The February consumer index published by Confcommercio shows a drastic reduction in the volume of goods purchased by families and an increase in expenditure on services.

Compared to February 2010, demand for recreational goods and services shows a rise of 1.4 percent, the major contributing factor being the continuing rising trend in expenditure on gaming, lotteries and betting.

Exactly two years after the tragic earthquake that destroyed the wonderful city of L’Aquila and a great many towns in the neighbourhood, the gaming sector has been able to generate the income predicted by the Abruzzo decree.

The decree allocated €8.5bn in total to the Abruzzo region, of which €1.5bn at least would come from gaming, split into three equal parts of €500m per annum.

The protests of the residents of a historic quarter of Turin, which led to the setting up of an informal committee opposed to the opening of a Sisal VLT hall, has highlighted a case worthy of consideration.

Last January the committee complained that despite the strong objections of many residents, the local council had authorised the opening of a VLT hall in the Spina 3 quarter, an area that is short of essential public services.

Players using an iPhone loaded with specialised software cleared out a slot machine, taking several thousand euro. But the manager of a bar in Castelnovo Monti, in the province of Reggio Emilia, became suspicious and called for the police to intervene.

The Italian government has identified video lotteries and online gaming as sectors that pose increasing threats to national economic interests.

In its report to parliament on information policy regarding security for the year 2010, the government highlighted how criminals have infiltrated our economic system, the dangers for Italian companies operating abroad and the channels used to transfer funds for the purpose of illegal activities.

From slot machines to bingo halls, from racing with doped horses to the new-technology skill games like online poker, gaming presents opportunities for organised crime. Even legal gaming is vulnerable, as reported by the Direzione 
Nazionale Antimafia (DNA), an official body countering organised crime. This affects not just the south, with Naples, Sicily or Basilicata top of the list, but also cities like Rome or areas usually thought of as beyond suspicion, like Tuscany.

According to the Contribuenti Italiani Association, “Italy is top of the table in Europe for the sums played at gaming tables, totalling an average of nearly €2180 removed from the real economy by punters, including under-age players, whose numbers have increased from 860,000 to 2.8m. The Inland Revenue is more concerned with increasing cash income than in increasing the awareness of the dangers of gaming dependency.”

The growth trend for the public gaming market in Italy has been confirmed for the full year 2010, with revenues exceeding €61.4bn (approaching four percent of GDP), a rise of 13 percent over 2009. 
The corresponding tax revenues were €9.9bn overall, of which around €8.7bn was derived from ordinary taxation on gaming and €1.2bn from extraordinary revenues represented by one-off payments from operators.

Thanks to Adria Gaming – the Italian arm of the Austrian group Novomatic – signing long-term contracts for the supply of video lottery terminals (VLTs) to eight of the ten Italian operators, the Austrian giant conglomerate has managed to gain a sizeable market share in Italy.

SNAI could this year be transformed into a leader among sports-betting companies, through a merger with Cogetech. Andrea Bonomi, president of Investindustrial, a company that (together with Palladio Finanziaria) acquired 50.68 percent of SNAI two weeks ago after 18 months of negotiations, has disclosed the plan to the daily newspaper Il Corriere della Sera.

A team of lawyers led by Riccardo Vizzini from Lucano is bringing a lawsuit against the state, accusing it of promoting a legalised scam – gambling.

“We see many reasons cited for divorce that are associated with money wasted on gambling,” says Vizzini. “It is the financial well-being of many families that is being ruined. The money from gambling goes to the state, and the provinces and regions pay the consequences”.

Public disaffection with Italy’s lotteries is continuing, and that is why the Amministrazione dei Monopoli di Stato (AAMS – the state’s monopolies administration) has decided that for 2011 there will be just one lottery, the Lotteria Italia.

The month of November saw a reduction in the total amount played on online poker, compared with October: Italians bet €245.7m on the virtual tables against €253.9m in the previous month, a reduction of 3.2 percent. It should be remembered, however, that there were fewer days of takings in November than in October. The daily average amount played remained stable in both October and November with a daily average of €8.2m.

The latest edition of ProGameShow, the Italian professional gaming and automatic amusement exhibition, was hosted this year for the first time by the Milan Convention Centre. It is an ambitious wager at a difficult time for the Italian economy and for the industry in general.

The latest edition of ProGameShow, the Italian professional gaming and automatic amusement exhibition, was hosted this year for the first time by the Milan Convention Centre. It is an ambitious wager at a difficult time for the Italian economy and for the industry in general.

Unemployment is rising for the first time since 1995. Welfare is in decline and there is concern about the economy. It is clear that families have endured severe financial difficulties: to attest to this, among many economic indicators, in 2009 there was a substantial reduction in household consumption expenditure (-1.7 percent, and -3 percent for types of food and drink).

The AAMS, Italy’s gaming regulator, has developed new rules covering the games operated on till receipts that retail outlets and other businesses issue for consumer purchases. The regulations were notified to Brussels on 22 October, and – barring unfavourable comments – will complete this stage of their passage into law by 24 January 2011.

While one politician from Piedmont, Alberto Cirio, is proposing to open two new casinos in the region, the president of the regional council, Valerio Cattaneo, has tabled a law proposing to limit gambling in this part of northeastern Italy.

A large part of the €7bn the Italian government aims to recover by the end of this year will come from public gaming. In addition to estimated revenues of €2-3bn expected from the sale of digital TV frequencies, the finance ministry was, as Euroslot went to press, in the process of devising a package aimed at gaming, with the possibility of inviting tenders for some new concessions.

The 38th Enada show at the Fiera de Roma welcomed 14,406 professional visitors, 7.7 percent more than in 2009. It was opened in the presence of Alberto Giorgetti, undersecretary of state responsible for gaming at the economic ministry, accompanied by the chairman of the trade association SAPAR, Raffaele Curcio, and the chairman of the show organiser Rimini Fiera, Lorenzo Cagnoni.

The remarkable period that bingo is enjoying in Italy was highlighted at a conference organised by JEA and Rimini Fiera, during which the regulator AAMS confirmed a 25 percent increase in takings over the first nine months of 2010. This is partly thanks to a tax break that has freed up new resources for investment.

Another success was the Rome Pinball Tournament, in which players from all over Europe participated, among them the reigning world champion Daniel Acciari – crowned Best Pinball Player 2010 at the last world pinball championship held in Minneapolis.

Codacons, the Italian association for the protection of consumers, has released the first findings from a study of the relationship between young people and gaming. Still unofficial and yet to be published, it has emerged from research conducted by Codacons in conjunction with Italy’s state monopolies.

Gambling is growing at the rate of 13 percent a year, with €53bn bet in 2009 alone: and more and more adolescents are getting involved, as shown by the data from a study of 40,000 students, led by the Institute of Clinical Physiology of the National Research Council of Pisa (Ifc-Cnr) as part of the “Il gioco è una cosa seria” (“Gaming is a serious matter”) project.

Online gaming in Italy grew by 31.3 percent in July compared to the same month last year. Receipts were €319.1m against €242.9m a year ago. According to data from the regulator AAMS, however, this represented a decrease of 14 percent on June’s €371m.

The average takings each day are €10.3m. Over the first seven months of the year takings amount to nearly €2.9bn, an increase of 42.7 percent over the same period in 2009 (€2bn).

A circular from the State Monopolies, sent to the regional Inspector, specifies that Totem  can  only be used by authorized licensees solely for the collection of fixed quota sporting bets, and that any other use represents “an assumption of participation in the collection from gaming, prohibited by the law”.

AAMS - with decree n. 15624/ADI of 5 May 2010, signed by the Director for Gaming – informs that “it considers” the test phase for the Videolottery to be complete.  It also emphazises that each gaming system that has completed the preparatory test phase by carrying out the relative test “will be admitted to the same test on the basis of appropriate communications sent to the holders of licences for gaming systems”. The test commission will indicate “the start date for the test and the schedule for the operations”.

Nearly 112 million euros were taken in the first quarter of 2010 by the four Italian casinos representing a fall of approximately 6.8% compared to the 120 million euros taken  last year. In March total takings were approximately 35.1 million, 13.1% down on the 40.4 million in March 2009.

Novomatic closes the 2009 financial year with a fall in turnover of more than 30 million euro compared to the previous year. This is one of the facts emerging from the presentation of Novomatic’s balance sheet for last year; this Austrian colossus is committed to investing directly in the new Italian videolottery market.

The Hit Group, a leader in the management of Slovenian casinos, has decided to launch an assault on the Italian market. The gaming sector is preparing for a revolution: in the next few months the doors of hundreds of Videolottery halls will open throughout the country, using the latest generation of high technology slot machines to guarantee large winnings and high profits for the managers.

Nearly 112 million euros were taken in the first quarter of 2010 by the four Italian casinos representing a fall of approximately 6.8% compared to the 120 million euros taken last year. In March total takings were approximately 35.1 million, 13.1% down on the 40.4 million in March 2009.

Venice however remains the best performer with takings of 42.1 million, 7.6% less than the 45.6 taken in the first quarter last year; next comes Campione d’Italia which has taken 28.1 million euros in the three months, representing a fall of 21% on the 35.6 million in the first three months of 2009.

The Austrian gaming colossus has decided to dedicate the next two years to improving its income in the Italian market. “We are dealing with an “exciting” market - says Franz Wohlfahrt, General Manager of Novomatic, stating that the Group has budgeted investments for this purpose totalling 100 million euros. For Wohlfahrt Italy is in fact together with Germany, Great Britain and Spain among the most important gaming markets in Europe thanks to the fact that one can count on a new regulatory framework and above all one that has been updated in the last two years.

The month of January has brought a smile to the casino at Sanremo, which is going through a phase of total restructuring.

They have seen takings of € 7,347,793 which is an 18% increase on the same month in 2009. That is one million one hundred euros more than last year, traditional games have brought in € 2,718,680 (+78.6%). The slot machines have taken € 4,629,113 and during the same period have paid out jackpots totalling € 288,552.

With takings exceeding 53.5 billion euro, the gaming sector has recorded an increase of 12.5% over the 47.5 billion collected in 2008. In fact, last year we spent nearly 900 euro per capita chasing the goddess of fortune, which  places us among the top 5 countries in the world for expenditure per capita on gaming. 2009 has been a golden year for the public gaming sector.

According to a judicial source, Lottomatica has lodged an appeal with the Council of State against the cancellation of the call for bids to award the Scratch and Win concession. We recall that the Lazio TAR (Tribunale Amministrativo Regionale – Regional Administrative Tribunal), in its ruling on 20th November 2009, had cancelled the call for bids, receiving the papers from Sisal, as appellant.

Takings from sports betting reached almost 4 billion euro in 2009. In fact, in total, bets worth 3,989 million euro were placed, a 2.1% increase on the 3,908 million collected from the sector in 2008. An increase – explains Agicos – that is very much reduced when one considers that in 2008 sports betting showed an increase of 50% over the 2,591 million placed in 2007.  On-line betting has done decidedly better, with takings of 1207.6 million, representing an increase of 12.9% over the 1069,7 million collected in 2008. Betting on the Internet in 2009 has accounted for 30.3% of the total amount collected.

Online poker in November has come close to the record set in October. In the past month Italians have played on the virtual green tables a total of €233.8ml against €234.3ml in October, a drop of 0.2%. Between January and November – according to Agicos – revenues have broken through the €2bn barrier to a record €2,063ml.

Audiweb, the company responsible for gathering and distributing data on online audiences, has published data relating to the month of October 2009.

According to data published in the State Gazette, total revenues related to gaming in the January-September 2009 period (including various levies classified as direct and indirect taxes) amounted to €9,779ml (an increase of €639ml, equal to +7.4%). Among these, revenues from lotto were €4,686ml (a decrease of €230m, equal to –4.7%), those from instant lotteries €1,377ml (a decrease of €56m, equal to –3.9%) and those from gaming machines €2,311ml (an increase of €286m, equal to +14.1%).

As reported by the body representing the four Italian gaming houses, these had revenues of €420.81ml in the eleven month period. As always, the Venice Casino is the market leader with a share of the total of €155.06ml. Second is the Campione Casino with revenues of €106.01ml for the eleven months. Third is the Saint Vincent Casino whose share of the total revenue amounted to €87.57ml. Last was the Sanremo Casino: the gaming house of the city of flowers which netted about €72.17ml in the first 11 months of 2009.

How come the SuperEnalotto jackpot has leapt to excessive levels again? Asking this question are the managers of the Osservatorio Antiplagio. In fact the jackpot for the next draw, which we recall will be held on Thursday 5th November, is officially confirmed as taking 3rd place in the classified list of the highest winnings ever in Italy and taking second place for the highest prize in the World. The Osservatorio Antiplagio points out that in order to understand the reason why the Superenalotto jackpot has risen to such excessive levels, it is interesting to observe the sequences in the recent draws.

In October, Italians spent 232.2 million euro on the virtual tables, which is 11.3% more than in September. This is a new record in takings, given that the previous one belonged to the previous month when takings amounted to 209 million euro. In the first 10 months of 2009 takings have exceeded 1,827 million euro, a value which if extrapolated to the end of the year means a market of more than 2.2 billion euro.

Great disappointment over the new V7 horse betting. After little more than four months it is clear that this new form of gaming is not taking off, on the contrary things are getting worse, showing the clearly limited popularity and interest among the gamblers.

There were frenetic moments last month for the 10 licensees of the newslot connection networks. Up for grabs were approximately 60 thousand permits for the installation of the new gaming terminals called comma 6b, more commonly known as video lotteries. For approximately 57 thousand permits (14% of the permits for the New Slots) the licensees will have to pay an anticipated 15 thousand euro.

Antonio Milo, the Neapolitan Member of Parliament of the Gruppo Misto party is reviving the idea of one or more real-estate lotteries to revitalize the hotel sales sector. Milo has told the Ministry of Finance that the general economic crisis has affected the construction and property market in a particularly serious way, resulting in some cases in the lack of interest in the purchase of real estate, in particular buildings intended for use as hotels; "The owners of hotel businesses in the province of Bolzano who find it necessary to sell a hotel, having failed to find purchasers for the reasons stated above, have been thinking of alternative solutions instead of the traditional ways of selling real-estate," he stated.

After e-commerce, online gaming is catching on fast. The amusement industry over the Internet is preparing to close the year with a turnover of just slightly less than four billion Euros, thus confirming it as the second virtual industry. "There is still enormous potential for growth," explained Giacomo Fusina, general executive manager of Human Highway that introduced its latest study on the trends in the sector at the online poker convention in Venice, yesterday.

There is a risk that the 150th Anniversary of the Unification of Italy, to be celebrated in 2011, is going to be a quiet affair, with many projects approved by the previous government being cancelled because of the lack of funds. Consideration has been give therefore to creating a nice instant lottery, such as scratch cards.

The world of poker is right now in a state of turmoil after the release of the news regarding the issue of a circular from the Interior Ministry in which Police officers are requested to pay particular attention to applications for the authorisation to stage poker tournaments. It is in fact the poker community that is releasing the text of the circular on the matter.

Sports betting in August recorded the highest (98.48%) monthly pay-out (i.e. the proportion of takings given back to players as prizes) in 2009. These are the most significant data arising from an analysis of the total bets recorded by the Autonomous Administration of State Monopolies.

If we put together two very typical Italian passions (football and betting) you get €3.5bn. This is the total amount of bets placed on football matches in Italy in 2008. When you look at percentages, this means that out of those people who place bets on sporting events, 92.27% place bets on football.

A Casino in the Capital City of Italy. This prospect cannot be ruled out. The Mayor of Rome has been talking about it. "The proposal for a Casino in Rome was put forward by Federalberghi during the election campaign, and I do not think there is anything wrong with such an idea. I do not understand why Italy is the only country without one, apart from four or five other countries», said Gianni Alemanno, replying to the host of the radio programme «One day as a sheep."

Reopened at last, the Casino of Bagni di Lucca, a well known spa in the Versilia region. The opening ceremony took place yesterday, Saturday 8th August at 9 p.m., with Mayor Giancarlo Donati in the chair. The introductory press conference had taken place in the afternoon in the presence of ing. Francesco Gatti (Bakoo spa), of Enzo Tintori and Gianfranco Bonanno, ANIT Association General Secretary and Spokesman respectively, of Prof. Marcello Cherubini representative of the Bagni di Lucca Council within ANIT and of Giancarlo Donati, the City's Mayor. The Conference Moderator was Maurizio Brodo, from Jamma srl.

Scratch and Win, based on the UK model, could be launched in the next few months in Italy. The winners will receive a payment every month forever. This is a new way of playing that will certainly fire up the Italians' passion for games of chance even more.

The fixed quota sports betting market continues to grow. In May, this segment of the market saw takings of 404.1 million euros, an increase of 44% in comparison with May of last year. However the figure for May was just 0.2% up on the figure for April 2009 when takings were 403.2 million euros. More substantial is the increase in on-line betting with receipts showing a total of 121.5 million euros in May, equivalent to over 30% of the total fixed quota sports betting market, up 1.8% on the previous month.

In a time of economic crisis and recession, the video games industry does not seem to have been affected. The latest data speaks for itself.

Pathological gambling may not rest within the competence of the commission responsible for Health and Hygiene alone. Yesterday in the Senate a proposal was put forward for the Senate Finance Commission to examine the bill introduced by Senator Baio and others, containing measures in support of actions to prevent behavioural dependencies and pathological gambling, believing it "necessary for the Commission to have a more direct involvement, it being considered that the subject of the measures to prevent a dependency on gambling is in fact extremely relevant".

At least once a month, during the first quarter of 2009, 13% of mobile phone users, i.e. approximately 6 million people, accessed the Internet from their mobile phone or from another mobile device. These are the findings supplied by Nielsen Online as a result of their research into the mobile Internet scenario in our Country. The users who go on-line do so approximately 10 times a month and for an average duration of 11 minutes.

The fixed quota sports betting market has also shown significant signs of vitality during the month of April. Exactly how much can be found in the publication of the Aaams data relating to takings from gaming during the month of April.

The bill submitted by Senator Mongiello and others, in which measures are proposed for labelling instant lottery tickets and for preventing addiction to gambling, has been assigned to the office of the re-united 6th and 12th  Commissions which means that the possible examination of this bill will be assessed with the Chairman of the 12th Commission.

The second B.E.R. (Rimini Bowling Event) has aroused curiosity and interest. This is the first European Bowling Show, held at the same time as ENADA Primavera. Even when it first opened, this event generated a feeling of ownership among the sector operators: manufacturing companies, bowling operators and players.

Present at the Show were all the main players and products from the world of gaming: institutions, network licensed dealers, gaming machines, spare parts, together with a complete roll call of the industry international press.

No crisis in the gaming sector and success again for Enada Primavera. The initial conclusions are being drawn after the ending last Saturday of the 21st ENADA Primavera staged at the Rimini Fiera. This is the Sapar Gaming Machines International Show, organised by Rimini Fiera SpA under the patronage of AAMS, with the support of Euromat and working closely with Ascob, As.tro, Fidart & Sicon.

Total tax revenues for the period January to December 2008, before one-off payments, were € 422,297m (+1.1% against 2007): € 12,287m (+6.0%) from activities connected with gaming (indirect taxes).

The European Commission has asked Italy to comply immediately with two rulings passed by the Court of Justice, one of which concerns the renewal of various licenses for managing horse racing betting on Italian soil.

Everyone wants them, with tens of petitions and many bills in parliament, but there are no plans for new Italian casinos yet. After many years of indecisiveness with the four "fortunate" official Italian casinos (Campione, Saint Vincent, San Remo and Venice) that are regarded enviously, 2008 closed in the red. A world-wide trend, certainly, in a sector that is feeling the effects of the crisis which in the first two months of 2009 shows signs of continuing: a year which it is acknowledged is going to be difficult for casinos all around the world. But there is hope that 2010 will see a recovery, as indicated by the research carried out by Globalysis Ltd., an American consultancy firm based in Las Vegas, which has consulted with the governments of the main countries of the five continents about the future of gaming.

The Istat survey on the use of the new technologies in Italian homes has highlighted a certain predisposition among families with teenage boys to use the Internet and to own various electronic devices for entertainment and communication. Altogether, in Italy, the most common technological items of equipment are the television set, present in 95.4% of families and the mobile phone (88.5%). Then come the DVD player (59.7%), video recorder (58.1%), personal computer (50.1%) and access to the Internet (42%).