Italian Parliament Enacts New Turnover Tax on Betting and Virtual Sports Wagers

The Italian parliament has enacted a new temporary 0.5% turnover tax on betting and virtual sports wagers.

Publishing the state gazette last week confirmed that MPs had supported amendments introducing new turnover tax across all betting-related verticals – online, retail and virtual sports content.

The turnover tax is implemented as a set of first steps establishing the “Revival Decree” of the government, an initiative that aims to collect funds to help the Italian industry and society’s post-coronavirus recovery.

The temporary tax charge would allow PM Giuseppe Conte to set up a new “sports relief fund” aimed at raising €90 m by 2021, funded directly from Italy’s approved betting incumbents.

In response to additional tax burdens, betting leadership has questioned the rationale of the Conte government’s action plan to tax an industry that has been in complete lockdown since March and faces a tough reopening of retail outlets as of June 14. The consequences of lockdown saw Italian sports betting report a 72% drop in revenue between March and April.

In introducing the new temporary fee, Italy becomes one of the highest-taxed regulated sports betting markets in Europe, where incumbents now pay GGR betting duties of 20% for retail, 22% for virtual games and 24% for online betting.

Measures of the Revival Decree undergo their final Senate readings before being ratified federally. Betting leadership hangs on the hopes that the Senate will review changes to enforce the turnover tax as an additional GGR charge for an exhausted industry.