Rome, November 22 (Adnkronos) – By 2024, illegal online gaming in the EU generates revenues of 80.6 billion euros, reducing state tax revenues by more than 20 billion. A phenomenon where unofficial operators control 71% of the market, more than double compared to the legal sector. This is what we read in research conducted by Yield Sec for the European Casino Association.
“This research has two benefits – comments Moreno Marasco, president of Logico – firstly, because it again puts online games at the center of the debate. Even when we talk about advertising, we always only consider advertising on TV and sponsors, but online advertising always dominates illegal games, to the detriment of legal advertising. And finally, the research clearly depicts the problem of distribution and the central role of concessionaires. The data, he continues, confirms that the demand for games remains, regardless of advertising: if it were not legal, it would be illegal. Ignores the reality this is a mistake that benefits non-legal operators while we need a pragmatic policy that protects consumers and guarantees legality to communicate, especially online, means allowing the illegal sector to not respect the ban and continue to intercept consumers. Advertising carried out by legal operators is not just ‘marketing’: it also serves to counter the visibility of unregulated platforms, which currently dominate digital brands, enforce existing rules to block financial transactions, and implement effective strategies in the digital field”, said Marasco.
Regarding financial transactions, Marasco underlined: “This study reveals that the problem is at the European level and this means that national politics and communities must collaborate to implement effective tools for online games that are already known to the governments of Member States and already adopted in the financial sector. We ask ourselves why this has not been done so far, even when high exponents from Consob, who support and are familiar with these solutions, sit at the ADM summit”.
