Rome probe: €25M in assets seized over alleged Gratta e Vinci scratchcard fraud by ex-concessionaire staff

Italian authorities have seized more than €25 million ($27.98 million) in assets in connection with a suspected fraud involving Gratta e Vinci scratchcards, one of the country's most popular lottery games. The measure targets five former employees of a gaming concessionaire, and the Guardia di Finanza carried out the investigation this week.

Prosecutors allege that the five used privileged access to the company's systems to find winning tickets before they reached the public, undermining the randomness the game is meant to guarantee. The concessionaire itself has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

According to reports from La Stampa, the suspects identified four winning scratchcards ahead of distribution. Two carried prizes of €7 million each and the other two were worth €5 million each. The accused are said to have used confidential credentials to enter the company's servers, where they could view or alter data and so locate the winning tickets before retail sale.

Investigators believe a wider network was involved. The winning tickets were reportedly bought by friends and relatives at several retail outlets across Italy, a method allegedly intended to disguise the origin of the tickets and make them harder to trace.

The seized assets include 25 properties, a number of vehicles and various financial holdings linked to the suspects. The Guardia di Finanza described the seizure as a step to protect public finances by recovering assets tied to the alleged damage. The aim is to secure potential restitution for harm attributed to the Italian Revenue Agency while criminal and accounting investigations continue.

A court will soon decide whether to uphold, modify or lift the seizures. The five former employees face multiple charges connected to the alleged scheme.

The case comes during a difficult year for Italy's gambling regulation. In June, the trade body EGP-FIPE told the Senate that the sector was caught in a "regulatory deadlock" that risked widening unregulated gambling. It argued that the lack of a cohesive national reform framework had left the sector "frozen", hindering network planning and weakening protections aimed at problem gambling.