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In a long-awaited ruling that could reshape how Italy regulates digital access to gambling, the Italian Constitutional Court has declared unconstitutional the national gambling device ban in shops and other public venues.
The judgment—No. 104/2025—marks a turning point for local businesses and digital service providers, and sends a powerful message: regulation must respect constitutional freedoms, even in sensitive sectors like gambling.
A blanket device ban with no nuance
The now-annulled provision—Article 7, paragraph 3-quater, of Decree Law No. 158/2012 (Decreto Balduzzi)—prohibited the availability in public places (such as bars, shops and tobacconists) of any device that could connect to the internet and be used for online gambling, even though such offering was licensed by the Italian gaming authority, ADM.
The rule applied to any computer, tablet, or kiosk that was technically capable of accessing gambling websites, regardless of whether users actually did so. In short, a device didn’t need to be used for gambling to trigger penalties—it just needed to exist in the venue.
The ban, coupled with a €20,000 administrative fine introduced in the 2016 Stability Law, has for over a decade restricted how local business owners manage public digital access.
The Constitutional Court: Italy’s gambling laws must respect fundamental rights
The Constitutional Court ruled that this sweeping gambling device ban in public venues violated multiple principles of the Italian Constitution, including:
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Article 3: breaching the principle of reasonableness and proportionality.
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Article 41: infringing on the freedom of private economic initiative.
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Article 42: undermining the right to property.
The Court acknowledged that Italy’s interest in preventing gambling addiction is legitimate. But it also emphasized that regulation must be appropriate, proportionate, and evidence-based. A ban that doesn’t distinguish between actual and potential gambling activity is, by definition, disproportionate.
Moreover, the ruling flagged inconsistencies with EU law, including the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), reinforcing the need for balance between public health goals and entrepreneurial freedom.
Fixed fines fail the proportionality test
Beyond the device ban, the Court also struck down the flat EUR 20,000 fine for violations. It found that the automatic nature of the penalty failed to account for the actual gravity of the offence and lacked any proportional assessment.
This is a broader constitutional message: sanctions in Italy must be graduated based on real-world conduct, not hypotheticals.
Why this matters for Italy’s gambling regulatory future
In a regulatory environment where the operators are about to receive new online gambling licenses for which they will pay EUR 7 million and need to deal with the gambling advertising ban, the ability to have a land-based presence has become crucial. This scenario has led to the spreading of shops involved in the sale of gambling vouchers, the so-called PVRs.
If the PVRs are now allowed to offer to the public devices that allow to connect to platforms of gambling operators, it will be a game changer since a completely new market will open up with much larger opportunities for operators.
We shall see how (and if) the Government will react to this decision. Indeed, the Constitutional Court’s ruling is not a green light for unregulated online gambling in Italy—but it is a long-overdue correction of a deeply flawed device ban. And this decision makes even more relevant the highly expected decision on the currently challenged new regime applicable to PVRs on which you can read the article “New Italian regime for gambling voucher shops (PVR) in place“.