Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli

What this authority does

Italy does not licence online gambling in the usual sense: it awards concessions, which are time-limited contracts won through a public tender at a fixed price. The practical effect is that the number of operators in the market is capped by the number of concessions on offer, and entry is possible only when a tender is run. The agency responsible, ADM, is also the customs authority, which reflects the fact that gambling in Italy has been treated primarily as a fiscal matter.

Italy was an early mover: fixed-odds betting was brought online in the 2000s and casino games followed at the start of the 2010s, which made it one of the first large European markets with a licensed online casino sector. The technical requirements attached to a concession are detailed, covering game certification and the connection of every transaction to the agency's own control system.

The defining feature of the Italian market for anyone planning entry is not the concession but the advertising ban. Since the 2018 decree generally referred to as the Decreto Dignità, advertising and sponsorship for gambling have been prohibited, with narrow exceptions. Italy is therefore the clearest example of a market that is commercially significant and almost entirely closed to conventional marketing.

Licences it issues

• Remote gaming concession
• Retail betting concession
• Gaming machine concession

What supervision concentrates on

• Award of concessions by public tender
• Technical certification of games and platforms
• Tax collection
• Site blocking

Markets on file under this authority