THECIGO Association, which brings together some operators in the Italian gaming sector, considers them to be in no way acceptable assessments illustrated by ADM Director Roberto Alesse and expressed yesterday at a hearing at the Senate Finance Committee.
“The assessments originate from an incorrect reading of the initial accounting data that the Association was able to extract (since it is in the public domain) from the ADM portal and correctly analyse. On the other hand, the findings expressed by the President Dr. Garavaglia regarding the absence (in the ADM report) of exemplary numbers and tables are fully acceptable
And then, given:
1) that the operators' Net Margin derives from the so-called Played (players' expenditure) minus the single tax + supply chain costs (PVR, SKIN and Agents) + management costs; and income tax is still not deducted;
2) that said Net Margin, once ADM's "oversight" has been corrected, must be reasonably estimated at 6% of the revenue from gaming, net of the single tax (so-called NET COMMISSION) and gross of income tax;
3) which, from the much more reliable processing of the CIGO Association (based on the certain accounting data held by ADM and extracted from the Agency portal with reference to the year 2023 and therefore updated with respect to the counts presented by ADM during the hearing), the amortization, over the 9 years of concession, of the so-called one-off amount of €7.000.000,00 would impact the operators' Net Margin as follows:
– approximately 4,17% for the main operator;
– approximately 10,94% up to the tenth operator;
– approximately 50% up to the twentieth operator;
– approximately 96,65% up to the thirtieth operator;
– zeroing of the Net Margin beyond the thirtieth operator.
Having said all this, we then understand the validity of what has already been supported by the CIGO Association in its previous reports, where it was said (data and tables in hand) that the indication of such a high one-off amount, equal to €7.000.000,00 ,XNUMX will cause the almost total disappearance of Italian concessionaire operators belonging to medium and small businesses, who have also ensured the growth of the legitimate market, the consequent tax revenue and the protection of the player's health (exactly the key Italian and European principles of reordering).
The failure to achieve the expected revenue objectives is therefore due to incorrect reading and presentation of the starting accounting data and will therefore inevitably follow from it, also causing unjustifiable and serious disruption of the reference production sector, unable to participate in the tender.
In light of what has been illustrated so far, it seems clear that they can no longer be awarded
of thirty concessions already included those to be acquired by the larger groups in the (pre-announced) number of 15. The tax revenue would therefore presumably and realistically stop at €210 million instead of the advertised €350 million.
Starting from correct premises - i.e. the lowering of the one-off fee to thresholds compatible with the real Net Margin of the current operators - which allow the participation in the tender of all current concessionaires and also new ones, together with the expansion of the concession offer to also include the faculty of Skin (in a number of no less than 5 per concessionaire), ADM would discover that the revenue can even be higher than the realistically reliable one (210 million) at the same time protecting free competition and small and medium-sized Italian businesses."
(in the photo Roberto Alesse)
