Solo in the gaming industry, so far the pandemic has cost the Italian state between 4 and 5 billion euros. This is the amount of tax revenue that went up in smoke in 2020 due to Covid. In fact, the health emergency has forced all gaming activities to close for five and a half months: arcades, betting rooms, bingo halls, slot halls and more. According to the estimates elaborated by the concessionaires and reported by Agimeg – Journalistic agency on the gaming market – last year the sector lost more than a quarter of its takings, with funding stopping at 80-82 billion euros, from 110 in 2019. The collapse, obviously, generated a blow to public coffers, which for 2020 should collect no more than 6,5-7 billion from games, approximately 40% less than the 2019 tax revenue, which had been 11,5 billion.
Even more serious, a large part of the money lost by the sector does not remain in the pockets of Italians, but goes to enrich "criminal organizations, since with the sector at a standstill, illegal gambling proliferates”, underlines Geronimo Cardia, president of the Association of public gaming concessionaires (Acadi), who is asking the Government for “an immediate reopening of activities, starting from already existing health protocols which guarantee absolute protection for workers and users".
