The
Delegation Law number 111/2023 for Tax Reform has been definitively approved by Parliament with important interventions also in the gaming and betting sector.
On 4 August last, the Delegation Law to the Government for Tax Reform was definitively approved by the Chamber, published in the Official Journal on 14.8.2023 with no. 111 and entered into force on 29.8.2023. As regards the gaming and betting sector, Article 15, without prejudice to the organizational model of public gaming based on the concession and authorization regime, as a guarantee of protection of public faith, order and security, the balancing of public interests general rules on health with those of the tax authorities on the regular inflow of the tax levied on gaming, as well as the prevention of money laundering of the proceeds of criminal activities, establishes that the reorganization of the sector referred to in paragraph 1 must be carried out in compliance with certain principles and criteria directives. Firstly, it provides for (a) the introduction of technical and regulatory measures aimed at guaranteeing the full protection of the most vulnerable subjects as well as preventing gambling disorders and underage gaming, such as: 1) reduction of the limits of bet and winnings; 2) obligation of continuous training of managers and operators; 3) strengthening of mechanisms for self-exclusion from gaming, also on the basis of a national register in which subjects requesting to be excluded from participating in any form in games with cash prizes can register; 4) provision of minimum characteristics that halls and other places where the game is offered must possess; 5) certification of each device, with gradual transition, taking into account the amortization period of the investments made, to devices that allow gaming only from a remote environment, forming part of non-alterable gaming systems; 6) ban on collecting game in amateur sports competitions reserved exclusively for minors under the age of eighteen; 7) use of forms of communication of legal gaming consistent with the need to protect the most vulnerable subjects. Furthermore, the following are envisaged: b) discipline of adequate forms of consultation between the State, the regions and local authorities regarding the planning of the territorial dislocation of the physical places offering gaming offers, as well as the consequent procedure for enabling the provision of the relative offer in the regards the subjects who, through specific selections, are responsible for them, in order to ensure investors the predictability over time of the location of the aforementioned places throughout the national territory and their predetermined distance from uniformly identified sensitive places; c) reorganization of the gaming collection networks both remotely and in physical locations, for the purpose of territorial and numerical rationalization of the physical places offering gaming according to criteria of specialization and progressive concentration of gaming collection in safe and controlled environments, with the context identification of subjective and objective parameters of relative safety and control; provision that the networks of remote gaming concessionaires may, under their direct responsibility, include physical locations for the provision of exclusively ancillary services, excluding in any case the offer of remote gaming itself and the payment of the relative winnings; d) to strengthen the fight against illegal gaming and the infiltration of criminal organizations in the gaming offer, strengthening of the regulation on transparency and on the subjective and integrity requirements of the subjects who, directly or indirectly, hold control or participate in the capital of the companies public gaming concessionaires, as well as the related corporate representatives, also providing for specific causes for forfeiture of concessions and exclusion from tenders for the issue of concessions, also with regard to trust companies, investment funds and trusts that hold, even indirectly, stakes in the capital or assets of public gaming concessionaires and which fail to comply with the obligation to declare the identity of the indirectly participating subject; identification of maximum concentration limits, for each concessionaire and related owners or controlling subjects, of the management of physical places offering gaming; extension of the requirements established by the anti-mafia legislation to all the contractual partners of the concessionaires, in analogy with the regulation of the subcontracting of works and supplies to the public administration, meaning by « contractual partners » all the corporate subjects competing in the so-called supply chain, including producers, distributors, installers of equipment and tools of any kind as well as those in charge of maintenance, collection and payment of collections (so-called « transport of valuables »); e) extension of the regulation on transparency and on the subjective and integrity requirements referred to in letter d) to all subjects, constituted in any organizational form, including corporate ones, who participate in the offer chains activated by the public gaming concessionaires, integrating, where necessary, the sectoral regulations in force; f) provision of a general discipline for the management of cases of irreversible crisis of the concession relationship in the field of public gaming, especially if deriving from revocation or forfeiture provisions; g) in the field of taxation on gaming, subject to ordinary law or acts having the force of ordinary law, in compliance with article 23 of the Constitution, of matters concerning taxable cases, taxable persons and the maximum amount of the tax; division between the regulatory source and the general administrative act of the regulation of individual games and the general conditions of play as well as the related technical rules, including those relating to infrastructure; definition of the minimum content of the contracts between the concessionaires and their gaming offer points, to be submitted to the prior approval of the Customs and Monopolies Agency; h) adaptation of the provisions on tax levies on individual games, ensuring the rebalancing of the tax levy and expressly distinguishing that of a tax nature, according to the different types of public gaming, in order to also harmonize the percentages of premium or compensation recognized to concessionaires, managers and merchants, as well as the percentages intended for winnings (payout); adaptation of the provisions on reporting obligations; certainty of the tax levy for the entire duration of the concessions awarded following public tenders and provision of specific periodic investment obligations by the concessionaires for gaming safety and the implementation of constant good practices in the management of the concessions; i) definition of transparent and uniform rules for the entire national territory on the subject of qualifications for the exercise of the gaming offer, authorizations and controls, guaranteeing forms of participation of the municipalities in the planning and authorization of the physical offer of gaming that takes into account the parameters of distance from sensitive places determined with validity for the entire national territory and the local location of the gaming halls and points of sale in which the offer of bets on sporting events is carried out as the main activity non-sporting players, as well as regarding the installation of equipment suitable for lawful gaming, referred to in article 110, paragraph 6, letters a) and b), of the consolidated text referred to in Royal Decree June 18, 1931, n. 773, in any case subject to the State defining the rules necessary for public order and safety, ensuring the safeguarding of the regulatory disciplines in the meantime issued at the local level, as compatible with the principles of the rules adopted in implementation of this letter; l) revision and simplification of the regulations concerning the qualifications for the exercise of the gaming offer and prohibition of issuing such qualifications, as well as the symmetrical absolute nullity of these qualifications if issued, in territorial areas other than those planned, pursuant to the previous letters, for the location of gaming halls and gaming points of sale as well as for the installation of the devices referred to in article 110, paragraph 6, letter a), of the aforementioned consolidated text referred to in Royal Decree no. 773 of 1931, without prejudice to the powers of the Ministry of the Interior in the matter, referred to in articles 16 and 88 of the same consolidated text; m) revision of the regulation of controls and assessment of taxes levied on gaming, for greater preventive and repressive effectiveness of their evasion or avoidance, as well as of other violations on the subject, including those concerning the concession relationship; reorganization of the current sanctioning, penal and administrative system, in order to increase its dissuasive effectiveness and effectiveness, providing for aggravated sanctions for violations concerning remote gaming; n) reorganisation, according to criteria of greater rigor, specificity and transparency, taking into account the sector legislation adopted by the European Union, of the regulations on the subject of qualification of certification bodies for entertainment and amusement machines as well as the regulations concerning the responsibilities of such organizations and those of the concessionaires for cases of untruthful certifications or the use of devices that do not conform to the certified models; reorganization of the regulation of the obligations, responsibilities and guarantees, in particular patrimonial ones, of the producers or distributors of computer programs for the management of gaming activities and related collection; o) definition, by decree of the Minister of Economy and Finance, on proposal of the Customs and Monopolies Agency, in agreement with the General Command of the Guardia di Finanza Corps, of annual control plans aimed at contrasting the practice of gaming, in any of its forms, carried out in ways that do not comply with the state regulatory framework for the practice of lawful gaming; p) the provision of access, by public and private subjects who carry out activities for the prevention and treatment of gambling pathologies, to data concerning the territorial diffusion, collection, expenditure and taxation of authorized games of any typology and classification; q) the provision of a report to the Chambers on the public gaming sector, presented by the Minister of Economy and Finance by 31 December of each year, containing, inter alia, data on the state of the concessions, the volumes of collection, the economic results of management and progress in terms of consumer protection of games and legality. The provision will return to Montecitorio in third reading after the changes made by the Senate Finance Committee.
The law came into force on 8/29/2023.
The Government has 24 months from the entry into force of the law to exercise the Delegation of Parliament.
Will it really be a "page that will remain in the history of our Italy", as hoped for by the rapporteur of the reform, Alberto Luigi Gusmeroli (Northern League)? We'll see.
