The pandemic and its restrictions have impacted not only the healthcare system but also many productive sectors of our economy. The legal gaming sector is facing an unprecedented crisis. In recent years, this sector has been a key pillar of our country’s finances, contributing 11.4 billion euros to the treasury in 2019. However, in 2020, estimated revenue fell by 41% to 6.7 billion euros. Following the closure of physical locations, there was a significant drop in in-person gaming (down 41%), according to research by the Luiss Business School. Before the economic and health crisis, the legal gaming industry had a spending value of 19.4 billion euros (2019 data), which dropped by as much as 33% in 2020. At the same time, there's a natural rise in online use, but also in the use of illegal channels.

For these reasons, Luiss Business School and Ipsos have jointly analyzed the developments in the legal gaming world by launching a research project on the gaming sector (as part of the observatory on regulated markets). The aim is to provide scientific support to public decision-makers, the Customs and Monopolies Agency, public gaming concessionaires, industry operators, and civil society stakeholders.

“The project aims to increasingly facilitate the sustainable development of the gaming sector by providing support to the thousands of workers and operators, as well as backing the distribution network that safeguards legality,” stated Nando Pagnoncelli, President of Ipsos. He continued, “These issues are in the common interest of the public sector and its licensees in the short, medium, and long term.”

Initial estimates from the research raise concerns that the growth of the illegal market may have involved up to 4 million players, not all of whom are fully aware of this choice.

Raffaele Oriani, Full Professor of Corporate Finance at Luiss University, added: “To safeguard a market that is essential for our economy – a tool to combat illegal activities and tax evasion – we need to update the regulation of legal gaming, making it more effective in addressing potential risks to users.”

The project included a Scientific Committee led by Prof. Oriani, an Advisory Board, a Technical Committee, and a Research Team. The Advisory Board included attorney Massimiliano Dona, Dr. Veronica Nicotra, Prof. Oriani, Prof. Pagnoncelli, President Livia Pomodoro, Prof. Emanuela Randon, and Prof. Andrea Alemanno, Senior Client Officer at Ipsos, who coordinated the work.

Furthermore, state concessionaires recorded an aggregate turnover of approximately 8 billion euros in 2019. However, it’s the analysis of the entire supply chain that reveals the most concerning data. The companies that support the activities of the concessionaires – from software houses to those that produce hardware for gaming machines, from printing lottery tickets or instant wins to physical locations across the country (such as bars, tobacco shops, and specialized betting shops) – employ about 100,000 people, a figure that is under significant threat at this particular time.

These are the key findings from the Luiss Business School’s research, which aims to describe the evolution of a sector that is essential to the Italian economy. It is a dynamic and competitive industry that invests in research and innovation (the analysis shows that 63% of companies with more than 10 employees have invested in digital technologies, compared to the national average of 61%), with a significant supply chain in terms of turnover and the number of employees.