Italy’s bingo sector just got some breathing room — and a new benchmark. The country’s gambling regulator, Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli (ADM), has set a provisional monthly fee of €2,800 for bingo concessionaires that have challenged the previous “technical extension” regime before the Lazio Administrative Court (TAR).
Under the new determination, the €2,800 fee applies from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2026 for those operators covered by the court actions. ADM explicitly ties this number to two pillars:
- it is the same monthly charge introduced by the 2013 Budget Law when Italy first made bingo concessions “onerous”; and
- it matches the level that administrative judges have repeatedly accepted as reasonable in interim rulings, especially when assessing the financial risk (periculum in mora) for operators facing higher extension fees.
The move comes after a string of legal defeats for the State. The TAR Lazio recently annulled ADM’s earlier determination that implemented a much higher annual fee of €108,000 per concession (roughly €9,000 per month) under Law 207/2024, finding the flat-rate “technical extension” canons incompatible with EU rules and not calibrated to actual bingo revenues.
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By reverting to the €2,800 provisional fee, ADM is effectively resetting the playing field while waiting for a full, competitive tender for new bingo licenses. For operators, the decision eases immediate cost pressure and offers short-term certainty, even if the long-term framework is still in motion. For the Italian bingo market overall, this is another sign that future concession models will need to balance state revenue goals with EU competition standards and the real economics of bingo halls.
