(Finance) – The First issue of the Censis-Lottomatica Permanent Observatory on legal gaming in Italywhich highlights how after the forced stop of 2020, in 2021 the game guaranteed an income to the state coffers in the form of taxes of 8 billion and 413 million euros.
To get an order of magnitude of what the game is for the state, just think that in 2021 the taxes on this sector represented 2.4% of the total final consumption expenditure of the Public Administration. And, again that with these revenues it is possible to cover the annual expenditure that public administrations allocate to recreational, cultural and religious activities, which for 2021 was 6 billion and 476 million euros, or that for housing and planning of the territory, equal to 7 billion and 83 million, or that for the protection of the environment of 5 billion and 774 million.
Thinking about the future, I am 8 billion euros have just been distributed by the Ministry of Health as part of the PNRR for investments in the modernization of the hospital network and local facilities. But not only: with an amount equal to that of the gaming tax it would be possible to build 35 new hospitals, with a capacity of about 16,000 beds or to carry out 2,050 school building interventions for the construction of new buildings, able to accommodate 615,200 students ( 7.4% of the total).
Not to mention that with 8 billion and 400 million euros, 164 kilometers of the Salerno-Reggio Calabria high-speed section could be built, to connect the South to the rest of the country.
It remains understood that it is the responsibility of the state not only decide where best to allocate the income from the gamebut also outline the perimeter within which play activities must take place without risk for citizens: 83.6% of Italians are convinced that the State must regulate and manage legal gaming to protect the consumer and the community.
And the idea of the regulatory state is strongly associated with the belief that state regulation and management are essential to make the legal game the highest barrier against illegality and organized crime. In fact, the 66.8% of Italians believe that legal gambling regulated and managed by the state is the real bulwark against illegal gambling.
It is therefore evident that any prohibitionist logic with respect to a typically human behavior such as that of play produces the consequence of relegating it to the sphere of prohibition, of the submerged and, therefore, of illegality. On the contrary, it is necessary to concretely recognize that, if socially organized, the public game manages to prevent a part of the players from falling into the trap of illegality and criminal groups.
This equation (less legal gaming = more illegal gaming) is confirmed by the lockdown experience: in 2019 the value of illegal gaming was estimated at around 12 billion euros, in 2020 (with closures) it rose to 18 billion (+50 %) and in 2021 it is estimated that it may have exceeded 20.
Gambling legally is, consequently, the best certification that gambling represents a practicable activity in a responsible, healthy and contained way and that today it is a widespread phenomenon that has become a component of the lifestyle (not only) of the Italians.
“With the resumption of normality – explains the Professor Giuseppe De Rita, President of Censis – the Italians have started playing legally again and the game chain has restarted. The role of the State is essential, which is at the same time guarantor of legality through the system of concessions and controls, and guarantor of the appropriate use of the tax revenues that come from gambling. Thanks to the role of the State, an activity that is part of the daily life of Italians can be carried out legally, without excesses and with a tax contribution to finance socially relevant collective activities “.
“Unfortunately – he said Federico Freni, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy – the game still suffers from ethical speculation. In Parliament we had to fight to prevent the gaming sector from returning to illegality as we did not want to extend some concessions. The enabling law that we have promoted goes precisely in the direction of providing for a unitary regulation of gaming, to combat illegal gaming and favor the legal one “.
“The lockdown hit the legal public gaming sector and not the illegal one,” he explained Marcello Minenna, Director of the Excise, Customs and Monopoly Agency – The Agency, at that time, identified a tool to suppress illegal gambling through the ‘Committee for the prevention and repression of illegal gambling’. We coordinated with the State Police and developed a regulation. We intervened in over 100 municipalities and closed over 150 illegal gaming points, raising fines of several million euros. The aim is to make people understand that it is necessary to monitor public gaming, countering illegality through regulation with interventions including modernization thanks to new technologies “.
“The photograph of the Censis – he declared Guglielmo Angelozzi, CEO of Lottomatica – confirms the centrality of the public gaming sector in Italy. The contribution of the Lottomatica group to the state coffers is 2.3 billion euros. This figure is the result of the work done by the company’s 1,450 employees and the 16,000 people in the franchise network. Numbers that push us to carry out our function even more with the utmost attention, starting from the fundamental issue of legality, to protect the state but also consumers “.
“The game is public order – he said Alfonso Celotto, Full Professor of Constitutional Law at the Roma Tre University – health protection, trade and taxes. On these four aspects we have separate and absurd regulations so that in the Municipalities it is possible to play at different times and with different rules. A system that does not work and that confuses operators and players. If the legal game is narrowed, the illegal game is widened, so we need a unitary regulation “.