AGCOM consults on when gambling-linked brands can escape Italy's advertising ban

Italy's communications regulator AGCOM has opened a consultation on the cumulative conditions under which activities that use brands linked to gambling licences could fall outside the country's gambling advertising ban. The agency is asking stakeholders for urgent feedback.

Resolution 234/26/CONS was published on 22 October and opened a 30-day period for submissions, which ends on 21 November. Feedback must be sent to AGCOM's certified email address with the resolution number quoted. Anyone who wants a hearing must request it at least 10 days before the deadline.

The review concerns paragraph seven of the guidelines adopted in 2019 to implement Article 9 of the 2018 Dignity Decree. That law was approved by the short-lived Lega-5Star government and prohibits direct and indirect advertising of online gambling platforms, services and promotions. AGCOM has said it is aware of discrepancies in the current rules.

The focus is on operators that promote separate editorial, sports and entertainment services under brands associated with their gambling businesses, often using extensions such as .live, .sport and .news. The regulator is examining when such identities could promote gambling indirectly or serve as a way around the ban.

The draft framework would still leave room for genuinely autonomous activities, but businesses would have to meet all the relevant conditions and show that their communications create no indirect advertising link to a gambling offer. They would need independent operations, dedicated resources and trademarks registered for non-gambling services. Editorial portals would need an identifiable newsroom, a responsible director, regular original content and registration where the law requires it.

Links, banners, redirects and promotional codes that lead users to an operator's gambling platforms would rule out an exemption. Separate services would also need distinct visual identities, and any shared name would have to give at least equal prominence to the non-gambling activity. Sports sponsorships, stadium advertising and paid digital campaigns would face closer scrutiny, and AGCOM could refuse an exemption even when individual conditions are met if the overall message, context or audience links the activity to gambling.

Separately, AGCOM has written to all Italian professional football leagues and clubs to say that the Dignity Decree's rules and guidelines must stay in force for the 2026/2027 season, regardless of the parliamentary deliberations on repealing the decree.