The tender for the renewal of the concession of Lotto, which could be included in the draft legislative decree containing provisions on the reorganization of the gaming sector, starting from remote gaming, requires a long time. This is clarified in the document that the ADM delivered to Senate Finance Committee during the director's hearing Robert Alesse. For slots and Bingo, however, consultation with local authorities is necessary.
“The inclusion of the rule relating to the tender of lotto in the legislative decree on remote gaming - we read in the document - it is appropriate in consideration of the expiry of the existing concession set for 30 November 2025 and the consequent need to promptly start the preparation of the tender documents. According to an estimate of the time required, in order to avoid the extension of the existing concession, it should be considered that, if the decree were adopted in the month of March, the preparation of the specifications, the technical specifications, the agreement scheme and the the tender notice, as well as any technical rules, can be concluded by the end of June 2024. The mandatory opinion of the Council of State on the draft agreement document must then be obtained and the procedure for communicating the technical rules to the EU Commission must be carried out with the expected 'stand still' period. The entire preliminary phase could be concluded by October 2024, with consequent publication of the tender documents in the Official Journal in the following month.
Obviously, the time needed to carry out the tender procedure must also be estimated, which could end with the award by the end of May 2025. The award must be followed by a period of six months to allow for the activities necessary for the takeover. by the new concessionaire, in the management of the system subject to devolution. This brings us to the expiry date of the current concession, 30 November 2025, barring any unforeseeable events beyond the Agency's control (such as, for example, any disputes). The activities to be carried out, being a tender with an open selection procedure, therefore require overall timescales of no less than approximately 18 months, and, therefore, it is urgent that the rule for the tender of lotto be approved as soon as possible.
The context in which the rule would be inserted would, moreover, be relevant both because it concerns public games for money and because the granting of the lotto also includes the offer of remote gaming itself.
It is not considered appropriate at the moment to include the regulation relating to competitions for other types of games, whose concessions expire in several years. With reference to the "scratch card" competition, it is highlighted, in fact, that the existing concession expires on 30 September 2028 and, for the "superena" gamelotto” and other national totalizer number games, expires on November 28, 2030.
For the concession of entertainment machines and that for sports betting, even if the current concessions have expired, it appears necessary to proceed with preventive planning of the territorial location of the physical places where gaming is offered, through forms of consultation between the State, the Regions and local authorities, as also indicated by the tax delegation law and already previously highlighted by the Council of State in the opinions issued in relation to the procedures for assigning the Bingo gaming concessions and the betting collection concessions, subsequently suspended".
