Italy budgets €700m from gambling taxes, the UK sets MGD at 25 per cent, and Canada moves on sports betting ads

This week’s headlines all point in the same direction: governments are still treating gambling as a useful tax base, even as they tighten the rules around it. For PSPs, acquirers and operators, the practical question is not whether regulation is coming, but which part of the stack it will hit first: licensing, retail economics, or advertising.

1. Italy’s newly approved Budget Law forecasts €700m in gambling tax revenue across 2026 and 2027, with the sector helping fund €26bn-€27bn of government measures. The revenue target lands alongside a reshaped online framework introduced in November 2025, which requires a €7m annual licence fee and separate licences per brand.
2. Retail gambling in Italy is still in limbo. Existing land-based concessions have been extended until the end of 2028, while a decision on a new Gratta e Vinci scratch card tender is still pending, with a paid extension of the current concession under consideration. In other words: the online rulebook is moving, the retail rulebook is not, and both still matter for payment routing and merchant risk.
3. In the UK, Chancellor John Healey confirmed a five-percentage-point increase in Machine Gaming Duty (MGD) to 25 per cent, effective April 2027. That is well below the 40 per cent increase that had been widely discussed, but it is still enough to move the economics for retail gambling.
4. The industry response was immediate. The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), citing EY modelling, said the change could mean nearly 9,000 job losses and around 1,000 venue closures. Entain estimates a £25m annual cost to its UK and Ireland retail business, while the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) says the policy could reduce annual revenue by up to £57m. The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Gambling Reform welcomed the measure.
5. In Canada, Bill S-211 is gaining support as backers push for a federal framework for sports betting advertising. More than 15 organisations, including public health and research bodies, have endorsed the bill, arguing for tighter control as gambling messages become increasingly embedded across sports media.

For high-risk payment firms, the pattern is familiar: tax policy, licensing cost and ad restrictions are being adjusted in parallel, not one at a time. That means more pressure on margins, more jurisdiction-specific underwriting, and more situations where the commercial answer is shaped less by volume than by the regulator’s latest move.