The Pope has publicly criticised the gambling sector in his address to the National Association of Italian Local Authorities.
Mayors from all across Italy headed to the Vatican for their traditional meeting with Pope Leo XIV, where he held an audience to talk about what he believes is negatively impacting Italian society, including gambling.
“Unfortunately, our cities know forms of marginality, violence and loneliness that require to be faced. I would like to point out in particular the plague of gambling that ruins so many families,” the Pope said. “Statistics show a sharp increase in Italy in recent years.”
The statistics that His Holiness referred to were those found in a recent report by Caritas Italia, which argued that the reality of a booming gambling sector in Italy carries the mark of significant monetary losses and physiological burdens for customers.
Caritas highlighted that total GGR reached €157bn in 2024, compared to the €35bn in 2006 (349% difference). Revenues from taxes on the other hand had gone from €6bn to €11bn for the same period. While this is still a substantial increase of 83%, it’s far below the difference in gambling revenue.
Money lost on gambling in 2024 totalled €20bn, with 10 regions identified by Caritas as having above the national average for losses (€493) – five of which are in the South, including the islands of Sicily and Sardinia, all economically challenged regions with a heightened risk of poverty.
“Gambling costs those who have less: not only because they lose more euros, but because those euros are worth more in the family budget,” Caritas concluded.
Italy is the second largest gambling market in Europe only after the UK. Licensed operators are subjected to strict controls relating to player protection, which include mandatory playtime and spend limits, as well as stringent financial and identification checks.
The regulator, ADM, is also very strict when it comes to gambling marketing, regardless whether it concerns black market or regulated operators, with hefty fines awaiting those who are found in breach of one of the strictest bans on gambling ads on the Old Continent.
Not only that, but the country recently adopted an updated regulatory framework that propelled its online gambling market into a new era, where each operator now has to pay €7m for a licence – a much higher price than the previous €200,000.