Gaming: growing market and higher revenues for the tax authorities in the first half of 2022
This is what emerges from the data on gaming spending in the first 6 months of 2022 compared with those in the pre-pandemic period. Big drop for slots and VLTs.
Italians "play" more and more. In fact, in the first six months of 2022, total wagers in the gaming sector amounted to over 65.7 billion euros, up from 48 billion in 2021 and 55 billion in 2019. , was 9.9 billion, a further increase compared to the 9.7 billion of the previous half year. The share ended up in the Treasury's coffers also grew, reaching almost 5.5 billion euros in the first 6 months of this year compared to 5.4 billion in the second half of 2021. Compared to the pre-pandemic period, the difference of wagers is essentially due to the sum of the higher wagers for remote gaming, which in the period January - June 2022 more than doubled compared to the corresponding period of 2019, going from € 13 billion in 2019 to € 26.5 billion in 2022 and the lower collection through machines, which in the same period of this year decreased by about 30% compared to the corresponding period of 2019, going from 24 billion euros in 2019 to 16 billion euros in 2022. had a strong increase due to the closure of physical exercises during the emergency period, maintains in this first half of 2022 the same collection levels recorded in the same period of 2021 (26.2 billions), while gaming with machines still remains much lower than previous levels, also due to the restrictive policies adopted by some regions. As for BETS, the overall wagers in the first 6 months of 2022 were € 7.5 billion, up by about 25% compared to 2019 levels (6 billion), even if the biggest draw comes from online betting. (5.3 billion), which increased by more than 40% compared to 2019 (3.7 billion), while the physical ones decreased by almost 20% compared to the same period of 2019. The collection of NUMERICAL GAMES and LOTTERIES, on the other hand , Was approximately 10.2 billion, in line with the 10.1 billion euro recorded in the second half of last year, with an expenditure of approximately 3.1 billion compared to the approximately 3 billion spent between July and December 2021. More a marked increase in tax revenues, which went from 1,541 million in the second half of 2021 to 1,611 million in the first six months of 2022. On the other hand, the collection of the sector of entertainment machines, SLOTs and VLTs, suffered a sharp decline, having collected in the first half of this year 16.4 billion euros compared to over 16.7 billion in the second half of 2021. Also spending undergoes a slight decline, going from 4.3 billion in the second half of 2021 to 4.2 billion in the first six months of 2022 with a contraction for the Treasury, which in this period collected 2.7 billion against 2 , 8 of the second half of 2021. Finally, there was a consistent growth for the online games of CASINO', POKER and BINGO, which in the first half of 2022 collected 28.2 billion euros, compared to 25.8 in the last half of 2021. Less marked, however, is the growth in expenditure - which went from 1.2 billion in the second half of 2021 to just over 1.2 billion in the first half of 2022 - and in the Treasury, which went from 320 million in the last half of 2021 to 347 million of the first 6 months of this year.