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Italian gambling sector growth and illegal market trends

Updated 3 times since CLSTR started tracking revisions of this situation.

What changed

2026-08-13 07:10 UTC → 2026-08-21 06:49 UTC · added removed

Since 2016, residents of Italy’s Brescia province have wagered over €23 billion, making the area one of the nation’s top gambling markets. In 2025, the province generated €3.22 billion in bets, with online gambling accounting for over 48% of that amount. Specifically, online play in Brescia exceeded €1.55 billion in 2025, a 13.2% increase from 2024. Per-capita gambling expenditure in Brescia averaged €2,560, including minors, which has prompted concerns regarding the sector’s appeal to younger residents. In the municipality of Pievepelago, online spending reached approximately €7.45 million in 2025, averaging nearly €5,000 per person in the 18-74 age group. When combined with physical gambling, total expenditure in the town reached roughly €9 million. A Ministry of Economy report released in April 2026 showed that Italy’s total gambling turnover rose to €165 billion in 2025, a 5% increase from the previous year, generating €11.4 billion in tax revenue. The Italian Customs and Monopolies Agency reported total public gaming revenue reached €165.33 billion in 2025. While physical gambling fell 1.3% to €64.4 billion, the digital segment expanded 9.5% to €100.88 billion, representing a 221% increase in online collection since 2018. The actual net expenditure—the amount remaining after payouts—was approximately €21.87 billion. Regional activity remains diverse. In 2024, basketball betting contributed approximately €2.5 billion to the €25 billion sports-betting market. In the southern region of Basilicata, 2025 gambling activity exceeded €1.6 billion, driven by smartphone-based online bets. Within Basilicata, Potenza generated about €1.02 billion and Matera added €594 million. Challenges regarding unlicensed activity have also emerged. An analysis of Google Trends data indicates significant interest in illegal online gambling, persist, with the an estimated illicit market estimated at approximately of €3 billion annually. Users frequently search for non-AAMS casinos, which operate under international licenses from jurisdictions like Malta or Curacao rather than the Italian Customs annually and Monopolies Agency. Abruzzo leads the country significant interest in searches for “Telegram casino,” a method used casino” methods to bypass regulatory blocks via messaging channels. In Northern Italy, Lombardia shows the highest intensity of searches for unlicensed platforms. Furthermore, Nexus Observatory reports indicate that nearly 1,000 monitored illegal sites recorded 37.2 million accesses from roughly 9.2 million Italian users in the first half of 2026, generating an estimated €1.5 billion in revenue. blocks.

Versions

  1. 2026-08-21 06:49 UTC Italian gambling sector growth and illegal market trends
  2. 2026-08-13 07:10 UTC Italian gambling sector growth and illegal market trends
  3. 2026-08-12 10:56 UTC Italian gambling sector growth and illegal market trends
  4. 2026-08-11 10:43 UTC Italian gambling sector growth and illegal market trends

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