Italy's AGCOM moves to close the "infotainment" gap in its gambling advertising ban

The exemption under review

Article 9 of Decree-Law 87/2018, known as the Dignity Decree (Decreto Dignità), bans all advertising of gambling with cash prizes, direct or indirect, on any medium. AGCOM's 2019 implementing guidelines, set out in Annex A to Delibera 132/19/CONS, list cases that fall outside the ban. One of them covers a brand that identifies both gambling services and "further activities of an autonomous character", as long as the promotion is unambiguous and contains no gambling elements beyond the provider's name.

The exemption has come under scrutiny because some channels for sports news and entertainment carry an operator's brand with a suffix such as ".news", ".sport" or ".live". In Delibera 200/26/CONS, its recent supplement to guidelines on campaigns against gambling disorders, AGCOM said such signs "may in practice take on a promotional function or one that circumvents the ban". It committed to revising the 2019 guidelines "in a short time".

What the new test would require

Under the draft text in Annex A to Delibera 234/26/CONS, the other activity counts as autonomous only if it:

• is carried on actually, stably and continuously, with its own organisation, resources and production processes, and does not merely serve as an accessory to the gambling offer or a source of traffic for it;
• has its own trademark, registered in classes not linked to gambling products or services;
• for news or editorial content, has a named responsible editor, an identifiable newsroom, verifiable regular updates and original content, and is registered with the ROC where required. A site that says it is not a news outlet because it lacks regular publication could not use the exemption;
• carries nothing, in any section or feature, that gives or eases access to the gambling offer of the same company or its group. This includes the responsible gambling tools that Legislative Decree 41/2024 requires of licensees.

Limits on how the brand can appear

The proposal also limits how the shared brand can look. Communications for the other activity could not reuse the gambling brand's lettering, colour palette, payoff, logo or other visual identity. Where the names overlap, the distinctive part for the other activity must be at least as large, bold and high-contrast as the shared part, and must not sit in a subordinate position. Showing the brand alone, without naming the product or service being promoted, would not be covered by the exemption.

Odds, tips, jackpots, bonuses, betting slips, game interfaces and reward mechanics would be banned. So would licence numbers, the institutional logo of the Customs and Monopolies Agency (ADM) and gambling risk warnings. AGCOM said their presence would itself indicate that the message relates to gambling.

Sport, search and review sites

AGCOM said it would assess certain channels "with particular rigour". These are sponsorships, billboards, LED systems and other media placed in sports settings, because of their "high contiguity" with the gambling offer. The same caution would apply to paid search placements on keywords about games, betting or gambling brands, and to pages of sites that offer, compare or review gambling services.

A closing clause would deny the exemption whenever the message as a whole works as an advertising hook for gambling, judged by its content, medium, context and audience. To check compliance, AGCOM could ask for documents on trademark ownership and registration, the organisation of the other activity, traffic flows and financial dealings with the gambling business.

How to respond

Comments go by PEC to agcom@cert.agcom.it with the subject "Consultazione pubblica di cui alla delibera n. 234/26/CONS". Respondents may propose reasoned amendments to the draft text. Requests to present views at a hearing must arrive by PEC at least 10 days before the 30-day deadline, with an advance copy to segreteria.dsm@agcom.it. AGCOM will publish submissions in full and without anonymisation, unless a respondent justifies confidentiality for specific parts.

For the size of Europe's online gambling market, see the EGBA's 2025 figures. In Latin America, Peru is proposing a mandatory addiction warning in gambling advertising.