Italian bookmakers with unpaid tax duties face shut down. Marcello Minenna, the newly appointed Director-General of Italy’s Customs and Monopolies Agency (ADM), said the Italian betting shops are refusing to pay local authorities tax duties as they struggle because of the impacts of COVID-19. Those shops will be subject to forced closures in the coming months.
ADM said it would not allow the operators to recover. Marcello Minenna has started talks with the Financial Police Unit (GDF), detailing the process in the coming months following the closure of the non-compliant betting shops.
According to the European Court of Justice, “betting duty is not discriminatory and must be imposed to all operators [within] the Italian territory, without any distinction based on the registered office.”
The Corte di Cassazione, Italy’s highest court, is due to pass judgment on 200 outstanding gambling tax convictions by the end of summer.
Minenna insists on carrying on with the agency’s strict attitude to unpaid taxes as it aims to collect a reported sum of €120million which dates back to 2018.
[image: Cristina Gottardi]
