Italy’s gambling sector will contribute €700m to the country’s 2027 budget, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni confirmed after the Council of Ministers approved the draft budget law on Wednesday.

“Settecento milioni arrivano dal settore dei giochi” (seven hundred million comes from the gaming sector), Meloni told the post-cabinet press conference, listing gambling alongside energy companies, banks and insurers as the main sources of funding for a package worth around €26bn. Banks and insurers, together with a higher financial transactions tax, are expected to provide more than €5bn, while energy companies have been asked for a contribution of a similar size to gambling.

Meloni presented the levies as a matter of burden-sharing rather than a targeted attack, arguing that sectors with fewer difficulties should help in a difficult moment. The bill now goes to Parliament, which must approve it by 31 December.

How the money could be raised

The government has not yet published a line-by-line breakdown, and the gambling measures are not final until Parliament has voted. Reporting by Italian trade outlets Agimeg and Agipronews points to a mix of measures that falls mostly on land-based gaming.

The largest lever under discussion is an increase of up to one percentage point in the PREU, the levy charged on stakes in slot machines and video lottery terminals. Agimeg reported that a smaller rise had met resistance within the governing majority. A second strand would extend retail betting, slot, VLT and bingo concessions that are due to expire, for two to three years, at a considerably higher price than previous rollovers. Current concessions for slots, retail betting and bingo run out on 31 December 2026, and the existing extension brings in around €232.8m a year, according to Jamma.

Other options reported include folding the Gratta e Vinci scratchcard concession, which expires in September 2028, into a three-year extension, and recovering residual debts from the slot supply chain linked to an extraordinary levy introduced in 2015. Il Sole 24 Ore reported that the full gaming package could raise as much as €900m and include a fifth weekly Lotto draw, while Agi, citing majority sources, put the figure at €800m.

Online gambling appears to have been largely spared. Agimeg said only modest adjustments were being considered for the online channel, which must remain consistent with the principle of fiscal neutrality. Italy’s new online licensing regime has only been live since November 2025, with each licence costing €7m, an annual concession fee of 3% of net margin and a continuing ban on gambling advertising under the Dignity Decree.

Land-based operators under pressure

The draft budgetary plan sent to Brussels earlier this month reportedly put gambling’s contribution at €718m a year for 2027 and 2028 and €478m for 2029, around €1.9bn over three years.

Retail operators have warned that further increases could push the land-based network past breaking point. Dario Peirone, director general of the Istituto Milton Friedman, said ahead of the cabinet meeting that further tax tightening “would spell the final collapse of land-based gambling”, according to iGaming Business.

What comes next

The budget law will be debated in both chambers through November and December, and the detailed gambling provisions are likely to be fought over line by line as trade associations lobby on the PREU rate and the cost of concession extensions. With retail licences expiring at the end of this year, operators need the extension terms settled before the bill is passed.

The Star Entertainment Group has been ordered by the Federal Court of Australia to pay a A$260m civil penalty for serious breaches of the country’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws, ending a case brought by the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) in 2022.

Justice Cameron Moore handed down the judgment on Wednesday 28 October. The penalty comprises A$195m relating to Star’s Sydney casino and A$65m relating to its Queensland operations. Star has 19 months to pay the sum in four equal instalments, with the first due within 28 days of judgment, according to the Australian Associated Press.

Court splits the difference

The figure lands between the positions put to the court. AUSTRAC had sought A$400m, while Star argued that anything above A$100m, particularly if payable within 12 months, could push it into liquidation. Justice Moore found the lower figure too light and the higher one excessive.

The judge described the contraventions as serious and “not mere oversights from time to time”, calling the conduct egregious and the number of contraventions immeasurable. “In effect, Star put profit ahead of compliance and did so on a large scale,” he said, according to reports of the judgment.

He also took account of penalties already imposed. Star has received A$200m in penalties for conduct that significantly overlaps with the AUSTRAC case, the judge noted, and he said the fine would have been higher without the remediation now under way at the group.

Junkets and high-risk customers

AUSTRAC’s case centred on Star’s failure to maintain a compliant AML/CTF programme and to carry out appropriate ongoing customer due diligence. The regulator alleged that Star failed to properly address money laundering risks arising from its dealings with the Asian junket operator Suncity and its funder, and continued to deal with them after becoming aware of reports linking them to criminal activity. The court heard that a customer with known criminal links moved hundreds of millions of dollars through the casino.

AUSTRAC chief executive Brendan Thomas said the court had found Star allowed high-risk customers to gamble without properly establishing the source of their funds, and that junkets were permitted to engage in highly suspicious activity without controls while retaining access to private gaming rooms. Because of Star’s admitted monitoring failures, the regulator said it cannot know how much money high-risk customers moved through the casinos.

“AUSTRAC will not tolerate companies putting profit over their obligations to the Australian community,” Thomas said in a statement.

Pressure on a fragile balance sheet

The penalty falls on a company that has spent much of the past five years fighting for survival. Star reported a A$307m loss for the 2026 financial year, narrower than the A$428m loss a year earlier, and its auditor EY warned in August of material uncertainties over its ability to continue as a going concern. A A$300m rescue package backed by US operator Bally’s Corporation and the Mathieson family saved the business from administration in April 2025.

Star requested a trading halt on the ASX ahead of the judgment, with shares last trading at A$0.13, against A$3.70 when casino regulators began investigating the group in late 2021. The halt runs until the earlier of an announcement or the start of trading on Friday 30 October. At the time of writing Star had not set out how it intends to fund the instalments. The judge observed that the company would likely need to raise money to meet the penalty.

The ruling came a day after Star’s annual general meeting, where chair Soo Kim, who also chairs Bally’s, told shareholders that “the fire is out” and that rebuilding could begin. On the same day Star reported positive quarterly earnings and operating cash flow for the first time in two years.

The penalty is the third major AUSTRAC casino outcome in recent years, following the A$450m penalty imposed on Crown Melbourne and Crown Perth in 2023 and SkyCity Adelaide’s A$67m penalty in 2024. Justice Moore said comparisons with the Crown case were of limited use given significant differences between the matters. Star’s next step will be its response to the ASX once the halt lifts, with investors watching for any capital raising needed to meet the first payment next month.

US online casino revenue grew 12% year on year in the third quarter of 2026, the slowest rate on record, according to data from Citizens equity research, while sports betting held steady despite one fewer week of NFL action in the period.

The figures, published in a Citizens research note this week and reported by ReadWrite, Gambling News and the trade press, show a steady deceleration through the year. iGaming revenue growth stood at 19% in the first quarter and 16% in the second before easing to 12% in the three months to 30 September. Analysts described the slowdown as broadly in line with their expectations. The note does not appear to have been made public, and the reported data cover growth rates and market shares rather than a dollar total for the quarter.

Within the quarter, growth picked up slightly at the end. Citizens put September iGaming growth at 12%, compared with 11% in August.

Launch boost fades

Part of the slowdown reflects the fading effect of recent launches. Citizens pointed to the arrival of bet365 and Hard Rock in Michigan and West Virginia as a factor whose impact was now wearing off.

The leading operators kept their positions, but the top three all lost share over the year. FanDuel remained the largest iGaming operator with 25.1% of revenue, down from 26.6% a year earlier. DraftKings held 22.2%, down from 24.3% year on year but up from 20.9% in the second quarter, its first sequential gain in two years. Citizens linked the improvement to changes DraftKings made to its business model in the spring. BetMGM’s share fell to 18.6% from 20.7%, a sixth straight quarterly decline.

Fanatics was the standout, lifting its share to 5.2% from 3.9% a year earlier, though slightly below the 5.4% it held in the second quarter.

State data tells a similar story

September figures from state regulators broadly match the picture of slower but still positive growth. In New Jersey, the Division of Gaming Enforcement reported internet gaming win of $274.8m, up 13.0% year on year, as New Jersey’s online casino market continued to grow at a double-digit pace. Pennsylvania’s growth was more modest: the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board reported that Pennsylvania iGaming revenue rose 6.82% to $249.3m, with slots doing most of the work.

Michigan, the largest of the three by monthly online casino receipts, reported iGaming gross receipts of $300.2m for September and adjusted gross receipts of about $288.2m, according to the Michigan Gaming Control Board’s monthly release.

Sports betting steady

Sports betting proved more resilient. Citizens data showed third-quarter handle up about 7% year on year, even with one fewer week of NFL play in the period, according to reports of the note. Same-store handle rose 1% in September, the strongest monthly growth of 2026 outside June and July, when the World Cup lifted volumes.

DraftKings led on handle with a 37.6% share, up from 37.3%, ahead of FanDuel at 32.8%, up from 31.4%. Fanatics’ handle share fell to 9.9% from 11.2%, although its share of sports betting revenue rose to 8.8% from 7.3%. Among hold rates, BetMGM improved to 10.2% from 9.6%, Caesars fell to 6.9% from 7.6%, and bet365 held at 9.4%.

State-level sports betting results were mixed in September as early NFL results swung hold. New Jersey’s sports wagering revenue fell 14.3% to $77.0m, while Pennsylvania’s revenue jumped 50.45% to $44.7m on handle that dropped 6.09% to $798.7m.

Prediction markets

Citizens analyst Jordan Bender has argued that prediction markets do not pose a significant threat to licensed sportsbooks. In his view, the heavy marketing spend of prediction platforms may be bringing new customers into sports betting rather than drawing existing bettors away from regulated operators.

Analysts expect sportsbook handle to rise in the fourth quarter as the NFL season progresses. For iGaming, the question is whether growth stabilises around current levels in the existing states, with legislative expansion to new markets still moving slowly.