The Council of State confirms the decisions of the Lazio Regional Administrative Court and reiterates that the lowering of the extension fee for Bingo concessions does not create any risk of insolvency and, therefore, no harm to public finances.
The Council of State rejected the appeal presented by the Customs and Monopoly Agency and confirmed the decision of the Lazio Regional Administrative Court to reduce the monthly fee for the extension of Bingo concessions from Euro 7,500 to Euro 2,800. The Regional Administrative Court of Lazio, in fact, with order no. 6247/2020, had granted the suspensive measure, granting the operators associated with Ascob to pay the reduced amount of € 2,800, as a monthly fee for the extension of the concession, up to the definition of the judgments following the referral to the Constitutional Court. According to the Council of State, moreover, the situation in which the Administration finds itself does not represent a real danger, since "as long as the concessionary companies, applicants at first instance, continue to operate under a technical extension regime, there is no risk of insolvency and, therefore, do not pose any vulnerability to public finances ". The Council of State, however, rejected the complaint put forward by some bingo halls on the excessive onerousness of the surety, as "the impossibility or extreme onerousness of the stipulation of the guarantee to which the contested ordinance subordinated the granting of the guarantee is not proven. precautionary protection ". The hope of all operators in the sector is that this ruling will induce Customs and Monopoly Agency to take measures to protect not only all bingo concessionaires, but also the revenue and the thousands of employees employed in the halls.
