Italy’s land-based gambling sector will remain in limbo, as the government is unwilling to sign off on the final terms of its long-awaited retail reorganisation.
A two-year negotiation between the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) and the Conference of Regions and Autonomous Provinces has broken down on the final settlement of the Decreto di Riordino del Gioco Fisico.
As last week concluded, reports in Rome spread that the final terms of the decree had been rejected by the office of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and were sent back to the MEF for further consideration.
Meloni’s Undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council, Alfredo Mantovano, confirmed to AgiProNews that any final decree would not change minimum distance protections in place by regional authorities.
The government is adamant that rules prohibiting gambling venues from operating near schools and other sensitive places must remain in place.
The decision is a major blow for the Meloni administration’s gambling reform agenda.
After Italy’s online gambling framework was relaunched in November 2025, Meloni had been hoping to conclude the more politically sensitive restructuring of the land-based sector before the expiry of its fiscal delegation powers on 29 August.
The MEF sought to bring together the patchwork of regional legislation and set some common requirements for minimum distances, opening hours, venue certification and concession requirements.
Yet regional governments have been resistant to a weakening of their powers as gambling is an important public health issue.
The impasse reflects a familiar feature of Italian policymaking, where national reforms frequently become entangled in constitutional disputes between Rome and the regions over who controls key areas of public policy.
The collapse of talks also raises fresh uncertainty about the new programme of retail gambling concessions, an issue that needs to be settled urgently. Before last week’s fallout, the settlement had focused on concluding the terms of compensation with the Conference, the body representing Italy’s 20 autonomous provinces and 110 municipalities.
If the regional distance restrictions continue, new tenders for betting shops, slot machines and bingo halls will be difficult to launch without them, and previous concession processes have been challenged under the current ones as operators were unable to identify compliant locations.
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