(Jamma) “In the period January – August 2012 – writes the AS.TRO study center – AWP gaming collections settled at 18,4 billion euros (compared to 19,4 in the same period of 2011). In the period January – August 2013, the collection of AWP gaming stopped at 16,8 billion euros. On average, therefore, wagers from gaming via AWP have dropped by 2,4/2,9 billion euros per year for the past two consecutive years.
AWP gaming spending in the period January – August 2011 settled at 4,8 billion (7,43 billion at the end of the year)
Gaming spending on AWPs in the period January – August 2012 stopped at 4,3 billion (at the end of the year 6,85 billion, with an effective decrease of 7,8%).
Gaming spending on AWPs in the period January - August 2013 stopped at 4,2 billion (due to the fact that the new 74% payout is still offered to the public on the basis of a modest portion of the machine park, obviously penalized by the continued presence of slots with the same payout as in 2012).
The only certainty that the data released by the MEF express is therefore the constant drop in wagers through "awp", associated with the decrease in spending on this gaming product, which, however, remains the best performing segment for the Treasury, to which, in the first eight months of the current year, 2,13 billion euro was transferred by way of PREU, in addition to the 50,5 million euro by way of concession fee.
Furthermore, another figure of clear evidence is the negative ratio between the increase in the PREU (11,8% in 2012 and 12,7% in 2013) for the purposes of tax collection which will drop from the over 3,1 billion PREU forfeited in 2012 to the 2,8-2,9 billion to which the current annuity will be able, at most, to reach. Basically almost 300 million "thrown away" just to satisfy the need for a formal accountancy to which to offer false expectations of additional revenue deriving from the rate increase.
Therefore, legal gaming is confirmed as an "ordinary product" whose revenue performance decreases as taxation increases, as happened with VAT, whose volume decreased after the rate increase.
In light of the fact that a further increase in VAT remains the most popular hypothesis for budgeting additional tax resources to cover additional public expenditure, the budget "hole" that we are preparing to create is already being appreciated in terms of drama.
