SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
AGCOM, the Media and Communications Authority of Italy, has summoned a €1.35m fine on X (formerly Twitter) for continuing to promote gambling advertisements and content to Italian audiences.
According to the ruling, AGCOM has found nine separate instances of illegal advertisements that have come from different user accounts, all of them verified by the blue checkmark of the X platform.
It is understood that the social media platform took immediate action advised by the AGCOM by placing relevant restrictions on the accounts found guilty of the violations.
Since 2019, AGCOM has enforced the rules of the ‘Dignity Decree’, ordering all media platforms to impose a ban on all forms of gambling advertising, communications and content. The Decree was authorised by the former Lega-5Star coalition government who called for Italy to adopt Europe’s toughest restrictions on gambling advertising.
Elon Musk’s X is not the only tech giant to fall foul of AGCOM rules and standards. A few weeks prior, Meta – the owner of Facebook – faced a similar sanction by the AGCOM of €5.58m over gambling content stemming from accounts active on the company’s Instagram and Facebook platforms.
Meanwhile in December 2023, AGCOM summoned a record €2.5m fine on Google, for failing to supervise gambling content promoted on its YouTube video sharing platform.
AGCOM’s tough monitoring of online content has been criticised by Italian media owners, forced to pay € million penalties matching the infringements of tech giants.
The Italian government has begun its review of the ‘Reorganisation Decrees’ related to Italy’s gambling sector (online and retail).
The reorganisation marks the first review of Italian gambling laws since 2011, the year Italy launched its regulated online gambling regime.
The Reorganisation Decree for Online Gambling carries no mandate to review the Dignity Decree rules. However, deliberations in Parliament have noted responses on Italy to soften its gambling advertising rules, as a measure to soften customer exposure to a €1bn black market.
