The legal gaming market makes the Treasury smile again. After the blackout of 2020 and the slow recovery of 2021, this year, according to industry data processed by the specialized agency Agipronews, the State will collect around 10.3 billion from the sector, a lower figure (-9%) than in that of 2019 (11.3 billion) but clearly higher than 2021 (+22%), the year in which the long wave of Covid had still made its effects felt on amusement arcades and betting agencies, closed for about 6 months.
Spending at 19 billion
Spending, i.e. receipts excluding winnings, also tends to stabilize: according to estimates, in 2022 players spent over 19.6 billion (+28% compared to 15.4 billion last year).
The push of the online
Compared to last year pre-Covid, the distribution of spending has changed markedly: the network of “retail” points of sale recorded an overall drop of 8.7% (from 17.4 to 15.9 billion), mainly due to the of slot and video lottery entertainment machines.
The recovery of the sector is mainly driven by online spending: spending doubles in the space of three years from 1.8 to 3.7 billion, driven by poker and casinos and betting, which register an increase of 89% to 1.4 billion (from 783 million).