ITALY SIGNIFICANTLY RISED BUDGET INCOME BY INTRODUCING GGR TAXATION

The Online Gaming Observatory of the Milan Polytechnic University revealed that the Italian gaming market has grown exponentially in 2016.

After a long period of turn over taxes, Italy introduced GGR taxation of gaming activity about one and a half year ago and significant results appeared almost immediately – the online gaming market contributed US$267 million in 2016 to the state budget, a 21 percent increase from the previous year.

As revealed by Totally Gaming during an interview with Christian Tirabassi, senior partner at Ficom Leisure, the Italian gaming market is now the second largest in Europe after the UK, which is considered the global benchmark for the gaming industry (according to the Focus Gaming News).

“This growth was achieved on account of the differences in regulating the gambling industry in Italy. The model carried out by the Italian Gaming Authority (ADM) was built through dynamic regulation that progressively strengthened the foundation for the development of the sector through blacklisting and inhibiting 6,000 dot-com websites,” he added. “This act led the leading international suppliers of online gaming software to deny their services to unregulated operators acting on the Italian market. The objective was to make the Italian legal gaming market more competitive and attractive compared to illegal gambling. Doxa Research Institute reported that the legal sector is increasing at the same time that the illegal sites are getting down. The online gaming market contributed US$267 million in 2016 to the state budget, a 21 percent increase from the previous year.” concluded Tirabassi.

In the same time, taxes on winnings are subjects of personal annual income taxations and additionally contributed to the growing market.