Italy’s tax office expects an extra €807m from gambling in 2026 after the online licensing reset

Agenzia delle Entrate (ADE) has closed Italy’s 2025 State Budget accounts with a favourable opinion on gambling taxes for 2026, and the number that matters is simple: an additional €807m in industry-related receipts is now pencilled in for next year. For PSPs and operators, that is the budgetary shadow of Italy’s new online licensing regime, higher GGR (gross gaming revenue) rates, and a market that is being re-cut while the state is still counting the old one.

1. Italian gambling licences, excluding lottery, generated €6.66bn in taxes and duties during 2025, according to ADE. That was around 1% of the Italian government’s total tax take of €668bn.
2. Within the 2025 accounts, state concessions — lottery, instant win games and machine gaming — generated €22.28bn in proceeds taken by the Ministry of Finance (MEF) to fund cultural, civic and sports programmes.
3. ADE revised its 2026 expectations upwards by €807m after the signing of the accounts. The tax office says the uplift reflects the restructuring of the Italian online gambling market, which launched its new licensing regime in November 2025.
4. The relaunch brought 52 online concessions granted by the ADM, with projected income of €365m attached to them. Budget Law of 2025 also lifted several tax rates: online sports betting and virtual betting moved from 24% to 24.5%, online casino, poker and bingo from 25% to 25.5%, retail sports betting from 20% to 20.5%, and virtual betting from 22% to 24.5%.
5. ADE estimates the combined tax changes will deliver more than €500m in additional annual tax revenue. At the same time, the Ministry of Economy and Finance says receipts have started to soften: between January and April 2026, gambling tax receipts totalled €2.52bn, down 7.8% versus 2025, helped down by lower tax income from gaming machines in land-based venues and the halving of concession in the Italian sports betting sector after the regime change.

There is another moving part worth watching. In the second half of 2026, Italy is set for another round of gambling-sector restructuring as the Meloni government tries to sign off key decrees before the end of its legislative timetable. MEF Deputy Minister Maurizio Leo is expected to finish talks with regional authorities on the Reorganisation of Land-based Gambling Decree, which would create a unified licensing framework for retail gambling across Italy’s 20 regions.