A new report co-produced by Italy’s largest trade union and a leading consumer group describes a country where gambling has grown to 7.3% of GDP. The only clear winners are the companies running the industry.
Italians lost a combined €21.88 billion through gambling in 2025. The authors of the report compare the amount to the size of an entire government budget. Total wagering volume reached a record €165.34 billion, equivalent to 7.3% of national GDP. The figures are drawn from the fourth edition of the Libro Nero sul Gioco d’Azzardo (Black Book on Gambling). It is produced by CGIL, Federconsumatori, and the Isscon Foundation in collaboration with Federconsumatori Modena. This year’s edition carries the subtitle The Losing State.
Total gambling volume was up 5% on the previous year. Translated to the individual level, each Italian adult spent an average of €3,284 on gambling over the course of 2025.
The online surge
The most alarming trend identified in the report concerns online gambling. This form of wagering crossed the €100 billion threshold for the first time in 2025, reaching €100.88 billion. That was a 9.5% increase on 2024 and a rise of 221% compared to 2018. Active online gamblers are estimated at 4.8 million, with the report flagging particularly concerning growth among young people.
The regional breakdown reveals sharp geographic concentrations. Among provincial capitals, Isernia records the highest per capita gambling spend at €6,307. At municipal level, Patti in the province of Messina tops the national ranking for online gambling alone – at €7,715 per capita.
Who wins — and who pays
The report is unambiguous about where the benefits of this growth are concentrated. Industry profits have expanded by 165% in real terms over five years, with aggregate sector turnover reaching €10.4 billion in 2025. The state, the authors argue, is not among the beneficiaries. When the healthcare costs of gambling addiction, social welfare expenditure, and the broader public health burden are factored in, the fiscal calculus turns sharply negative. Citizens, meanwhile, are net losers by definition; the €21.88 billion they collectively lost represents the margin extracted by operators from total wagering volume.
The report’s title, The Losing State, encapsulates its central argument: that Italy’s permissive regulatory environment, and the state’s partial financial dependence on gambling revenues, have produced a situation in which government, society, and individual citizens all ultimately bear costs that the industry does not.
The findings land at a politically sensitive moment. Italy has debated gambling regulation on and off for years without producing comprehensive reform. Online platforms have quietly become the dominant and fastest-growing channel for wagering in the country. In 2025, there were a number of cases of illegal sites being linked to criminal activity.
