The Italian Customs and Monopolies Agency (ADM) has revealed its Activity and Organization Plan (PIAO) for 2025-2027, which aims to regulate, modernize, and generally bring more transparency to the gambling sector of the nation.
This development is part of a broader strategy that has special provisions in the Italian budget for 2025 and, as such, seeks to introduce technical advancements, improve AML (anti-money laundering) control, and provide updated compliance measures.
By introducing the new framework, the Customs and Monopolies Agency wants to bolster user protection while ensuring better transparency in gambling concessions among sensitive groups.
Consequently, this plan will build on the “Reorganization of Gambling Decree” introduced in March 2024, an act that set the foundation for the biggest gambling reform in Italy in recent times.
The ADM stated:
The ADM’s mission is not limited to fiscal aspects alone. It also concerns the improvement of economic and social well-being and the protection of citizens’ health and safety.
Furthermore, the Italian regulator intends to diminish criminal influences and fraud by enforcing tightened financial surveillance, more rigorous licensing processes, and coming up with new ways to battle black market operators that cost the country a whopping $1.09 (€1 billion) in lost revenue each year.
By introducing improved anti-money laundering practices, the ADM will meet the directives of the European Union, which aim to identify financial shortcomings and fishy transactions within the online gaming sector.
This is why the ADM wants to work closely with the Financial Police and the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to administer a real-time surveillance system with the purpose of tracking operator actions, financial transactions, and player behaviour.
For this purpose, the ADM revealed that it plans to relentlessly double the inspection rate of both online and land-based gambling providers, impose a 25-day concession fee deadline for payments to reduce delays and require operators to submit improved self-declarations.
In order to enforce its new approach more seamlessly and productively, the ADM plans to invest a lot of funds in AI-boosted compliance tools that aim to detect problem gamblers, identify potential fraud cases, and better the licensing procedure.
On top of this, the regulator will introduce an open data portal that will give Italian players and industry stakeholders boosted transparency on compliance reports, enforcements, and licensing decisions.
To match this output and achieve its ambitious goals, the ADM said that it plans to create 2,400 new job opportunities.
