Italy appoints new gambling chief
Luigi Magistro leaves tax authority to take up role as deputy director of Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli.
The Italian government has announced the appointment of Luigi Magistro as the deputy director general for the newly-formed Customs and Monopolies Agency (Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli), with direct responsibility for gambling legislation.
The appointment is expected to be confirmed by the Italian Council of Ministers in the coming days, according to newswire Agipronews.
He replaces former AAMS director general Raffaele Ferrara, who stepped down early in June ahead of a merger which will combine the regulatory body with the country’s Customs Authority, announced as part of a wider restructuring of the country’s Ministry of the Economy, with the Italian government looking to cut costs in a bid to drag the country out of recession.
Magistro, who resigned as head of revenue investigation within the country’s tax authority (Agenzia delle Entrate) to take up his new role, joins at a time when the Italian egaming market has seen significant decline in revenues across a number of verticals, with the introduction of cash poker and casino the only areas of growth.
AAMS published figures which showed the market had grown just 0.2% in the first five months of the year, and despite May proving to be the most successful month of the year to date for egaming in Italy, high payout rates of 91.66% for online bets saw revenues for the vertical decline 11% year-on-year to 38m for May.
With the government announcing the legalisation of a number of new products in a bid to restore growth to the sector, Magistro will take charge of the licensing process for online slots, with operators able to go live in December this year, and as deputy director general of the new authority will oversee the 18-month testing period for virtual sports, announced last week.