Italian regulator pledges not to raise egaming tax
Luigi Magistro says low tax levels required to prevent rise of unlicensed operators.
Italy’s gaming regulator dismissed talk of a rise in online gaming tax, saying a “reasonable” level of egaming tax remains a necessary measure to curb the rise of Italy’s black market.
Luigi Magistro, who was named Deputy Director of the Italian Customs Authority last year ahead of the body’s merger with gambling authority AAMS, was speaking at a public hearing into online gambling organised by the European Social and Economic Committee. He explained that in order to ensure the licensed offering is able to compete with the black market, regulators should impose “reasonable taxation.”
He added that tax revenues were “relatively small”, and “certainly incomparable” with those resulting from slot machines and lotteries. “The objective of the regulation can only be that of consumer protection, and not to achieve more revenue,” Magistro said.
Magistro’s comments were made after Italian gross gaming revenues declined in 2012, something which he attributed to lower consumer spending in Italy in general. Online casino table games and slots are taxed at a noticeably lower level than Italy’s land-based gaming market, which prompted opposition from VLT operators ahead of the authorisation of online slots in December last year.
Giulio Coraggio, lawyer with DLA Piper Italy, wrote in his Gaming Tech Law blog that low taxation could represent “the most effective measure” to ensure operators comply with dot.it regulations. “An increase in the taxation in the online sector would not bring relevant advantages to the entries of the State if it is considered that they represent only 2.2% of the tax entries generated from the gaming sector,” Coraggio said.
Magistro also addressed the need for cooperation between European egaming regulators, following the establishment of an informal association between AAMS and its French, Spanish and Portuguese counterparts last year. “The cooperation between regulators is essential,” said Magistro, referencing a meeting with Birgitte Sand of the Danish Gambling Authority which “has led us to put in place some operational initiatives that will lead us in a short time, to improve [egaming] activities”.