On the eve of his resignation, Gabriele Gravina, the president of the Italian Football Federation, released a 10-page explosive report targeting the comprehensive gambling advertising ban implemented in the country since 2018. The document, originally planned to be submitted at the hearing of the House Committee on Culture, could not be presented by Gravina due to his resignation announcement, but its contents have already caused quite a stir in Italian football. The core argument of the report is quite harsh: the ban is "basically ineffective" in actually curbing underage gambling and illegal betting activities, instead cutting off an important source of sponsorship that clubs rely on for survival. At the same time, Gravina also proposed an alternative plan—special taxation on gambling revenues to support the football system. Against the backdrop of Italy missing out on the World Cup finals for three consecutive terms, this report essentially lays out the structural financial difficulties of Italian football in the sunlight.
Special Tax Proposal: Using Gambling Profits to Generate Funds for Football
In the report, Gravina strongly advocates a policy that follows the practice of several European countries, imposing a special tax on gambling turnover or winnings linked to football matches, with the proceeds specifically used for the development of Italian football. He emphasizes that this mechanism only needs to convert the current EU directives into domestic law to be implemented, and the operational path is not complicated.
According to the report's plan, this tax revenue will be strictly earmarked for three specific directions:
• Development and improvement of the youth training system;
• Upgrading and renovation of stadium infrastructure;
• Prevention and intervention projects for problem gambling.
Gravina positions this as a key financial pillar to alleviate the long-term underinvestment at the grassroots level of Italian football. His concerns are not unfounded—data shows that Italian professional football clubs currently incur a combined annual loss of over 730 million euros, with a total debt amounting to about 5.5 billion euros, and investments in youth academies and stadium modernization are significantly lagging behind their European peers.
It is worth mentioning that this proposal coincides with a deep reshuffle of the Italian gambling market. By November 2025, the market, originally with over four hundred operating domains, will be compressed to only fifty-two licenses, each corresponding to a single online identity, with the market structure leaning towards oligopoly. Nevertheless, Italy remains one of the largest online gambling markets in Europe, with just license revenue contributing about 364 million euros (approximately 424 million US dollars) to the treasury as of last November.
Review of the Advertising Ban: The Tension Between Protective Intentions and Commercial Reality
Another major point in the report hits the comprehensive ban on gambling advertising and sponsorship implemented in 2018 under the "Dignity Decree." Gravina cites data from a 2022 parliamentary inquiry committee report indicating that in the years following the implementation of the ban, underage gambling and illegal betting activities not only did not decrease but continued to grow, showing the ban's actual interception effect is minimal.
What's more painful for the Italian football community is that the ban directly led to a significant reduction in club sponsorship income, putting Serie A at a disadvantage in commercial competition with top leagues like the Premier League and La Liga. In fact, according to a UEFA report for 2026, 24% of club jerseys in the 2025-26 season still featured gambling company logos, indicating that market demand has not disappeared, only that legal channels have been cut off.
Currently, Premier League clubs have voluntarily agreed to ban front-of-shirt gambling sponsorships from the 2026-27 season, retaining only the sleeve positions. This move is estimated to create a revenue shortfall of about eighty million pounds for the Premier League. If Italy continues to maintain a blanket ban, the situation will only become more passive under the dual pressures of sponsorship loss and regulatory ineffectiveness. Gravina also mentioned in the report that the government had previously launched plans to temporarily redirect gambling-related revenues to sports, but unfortunately, these were not renewed.
Policy Breakthrough Question: Is Taxation a Feasible Alternative to the Ban?
While tracking European gambling advertising regulatory trends, PASA's official website noted that Italy's predicament is somewhat representative. On one hand, restricting gambling marketing is justified to protect minors and social stability; on the other hand, completely severing the commercial ties between legal operators and sports events often leads to a sponsorship vacuum filled by illegal platforms, making regulation fall into a dilemma of "controlling what is visible and missing what is not."
Gravina's special tax proposal is essentially a shift in thinking from "blocking" to "channeling": rather than letting the advertising ban tie the hands and feet of legal operators, it allows for limited commercial presence while redirecting industry profits back into the sports foundation. However, whether this plan will receive parliamentary approval remains uncertain. As Gravina continues to serve in a caretaker capacity until the special electoral congress of the football association in June, this report is less a farewell upon resignation and more a last-ditch effort to secure financial autonomy for the future of Italian football.
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This article is from "PASA-Global iGaming Leaders," a gambling industry news channel:https://t.me/pasa_news
Original deep channel for gambling:https://t.me/gamblingdeep
Free data reports: @pasa_research
PASA Matrix: @pasa002_bot
PASA official website: https://www.pasa.news
