analysis
Italy’s Ministry of Finance is currently at loggerheads with the country’s 10 gaming machine operators, which are disputing ?nes of €2.5bn – down from an original €90bn. With many local operators struggling with large debt levels and key verticals in decline, eGaming Review reports on a market in a state of ?ux R o b i n H a r r i s o n
The beginning of the end
Italy’s economy is crumbling with former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi forced from office to be replaced by Mario Monti, who has gallantly waived his salary as he looks to drag the country back from the brink of ?nancial collapse. Monti’s government has passed a series of austerity measures that have already affected the gambling sector. The withdrawal of horseracing funding saw the industry shut down for most of January leading to a 56% year-on-year decline in revenues for the month. This was followed by rumoured tax changes to casino and poker which were then hurriedly withdrawn from the latest ?scal decree passed by the Italian Ministry of Finance, only for the country’s 10 gaming machine operators to be ?ned for allegedly failing to comply with regulation. In February, Italy’s 10 gaming machine operators (Snai, Lottomatica, Sisal, Cirsa, Codere, Cogetech, G.Matica, Gamenet, B Plus Giocolegale and HBG Gaming) were handed total ?nes of €2.5bn by the government’s audit department, the Corte dei Conti, for allegedly failing to connect their systems to a central reporting network overseen by AAMS, designed to allow the authority to calculate the tax each company should pay on video lottery terminals (VLTs). The operators in question have pledged to appeal the verdict as the ?nes could put them in dire ?nancial straits and give foreign brands a chance to muscle in on the market. But with revenues from core verticals dwindling and high levels of debt sti?ing budgets, a change could occur whatever the outcome of the case.
€90bn
the original amount sought from 10 local operators in fines by the Corte dei Conti
The Corte dei Conti had initially sought to ?ne the 10 companies a total of €90bn for the time the machines were not connected to the reporting network, based on a ?ne of €50 for every hour each machine was not connected. While the €90bn ?ne – Lottomatica was ?ned €4bn and Snai €4.8bn, although the Ministry of Finance refused to reveal the amounts sought from the other eight operators – may seem high, working on the assumption that there are around 300,000 gaming terminals in Italy, the operators would be liable for a combined ?ne of €360m each day the machines were not connected. And considering the machines were offline for three years between 2006 and 2008, the revised total of €2.5bn could be a fair compromise. In the red Despite the high sums the Italian population lavishes on gambling (Italians spend approximately
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