Abstract

Until the second half of the 90s, the Italian world of betting observed a radical change both in terms of law and, consequently, of game approach on behalf of Italian sports betters. The old «schedina del totocalcio» has been initially replaced by paper receipts of fixed-odds bets that, presently, are disappearing in favour of virtual transactions via web by the Italian betters. In facing the sports betting boom, that has increased in volume by 40 times in the last 12 years, the Italian legislator's reply was initially opportune. The Bersani Decree (2006) granted bookmakers an appropriate and proper distribution of betting agencies throughout the country in order to comply with the requirements of the Italian sports betters. This enabled the recovery of indirect, relevant amount, fiscal revenues that counterbalanced the reduction due to the economic crisis of this past year. Currently, the positive dynamics of the phenomenon are under risk because of some bottlenecks in the system. Particularly we refer to the low competitive degree of the betting market due to the Italian fiscal and permission regimes. This paper retraces the law and economic processes concerning this phenomenon focusing on its associated worth and threats.