One hundred and forty billion is how much the Italians will have pulled out for slot, betting, lottery, scratch&vinci, and other topologies of gambling in 2022. “An absolute record collection”, announced Marcello Minenna, director general of the Agenzia delle Excise, customs and monopoly, on the occasion of the presentation of the annual “Blue Book”.
A very reliable forecast, especially presented on an official occasion, the most important one for the Agency. And it is the confirmation that the gambling sector is far from in crisis, as I keep repeating the lobby to contrast the regulations, especially those put in the Community field. Instead, the business grew a lot. Despite the pandemic and lockdown.
Just look at the dates of the last three years, contained in the “Blue Book”: 110.4 million euros in 2019, 88.2 billion euros in 2020, the year of the two lockdowns with all the games closed, the “macchinette” blocked and the stop even at “grattini”. But then in 2021, with the reopening of everything (but not for the whole year) it rose to 111.17 billion euros (+25.98%), even higher than the pre-Covid period. And now the “absolute record”, with a +30% compared to 2021, already a record (sono semper notizie fornite da Minenna). While it’s down (-26.3%), still compared to 2019, the revenue, that is the State’s income, passed from 11.4 billion two years ago, to 7.2 in 2020, up to 8.4 billion last year. To make the business grow is especially the online passato from 36.3 billion euros in 2019 to 49.2 billion in 2020 and 67.1 billion in 2021. A confirmation that the increase is not due only to the closing of the sale e al blocco di slot e vlt, ma a physico transferencia da distanza. Even if physical gambling has not returned to pre-pandemic levels: in 2019 it was just under 74 billion euros, it collapsed in 2020 to 39 billion and then rose to 44 billion in 2021. More than a third in less than two years and this explains the great activism of the sector against the distance meter established by the Municipality and Region. Che managed to extend, freeze, water down many regional laws, especially those governed by the centre-right.
Dove finiscono i soldi spese online? At the top we find casino games, with 47.5 billion euros, followed by sports betting with almost 12 billion euros, poker with 2.6 billion euros, and the betting exchange with 2.2 billion euros. Thanks to the re-opening of gaming points in the territory, physical gambling collection in 2021 registered an increase of 12.6% compared to that of 2020, mainly due to certain types of gambling: 48.3% for the lottery, 30.2 % for the lotto and 30% for i giochi numeri a totalizzatore. Calano, invece, the “macchinette”, and it is the only positive news, even if they still remain too many and diffuse (even for the block of many distance meters). The Awp (technical name of the slot machines) went from 263,191 in 2019 to 261,179 in 2020 and 255,559 in 2021, the vlt (dove si può spendere molto di più) went down from 57,920 in 2019 to 56,043 in 2020 and 55,772 in 2021. In 2021, the Agency carried out checks on 10,874 businesses that hosted gambling, issuing 3,069 sanctions (-33.71% on 2020) and assessing a total tax of 94.4 million (+7.6%). Regarding the violations found in the betting sector, in 2021 there were 194 reported people (71 in 2019 and 19 in 2020) and 12 precautionary measures (they were 22 and 2), 72 penal violations found (against 89 and 30) and 5 and criminal seizure (they were 7 and zero). In 2021, in addition, 197 irregular gaming sites were banned, with a sharp decrease. They were actually 1,037 in 2019, falling to 297 in 2020. Dati che smentiscono un tesis del mondo dell’azzardo, e cioè che la chiusura delle abbia favorito l’azzardo illegale.
