Addictions, Agic: effective rules are needed to tackle gambling
The 2026 Report to Parliament reveals a record level of gambling: nearly 1.5 million students gambled in 2025. According to Agic, the regulatory reform of the sector needs to be completed
The problem of gambling “exists, affects an increasingly younger demographic, and calls for concrete solutions”. The alarm has been raised by Agic, the association representing the main licensed operators of state-regulated gambling, which has commented with concern on the figures emerging from the 2026 Report to Parliament on the phenomenon of addiction. According to the survey, the prevalence of the phenomenon is rising sharply: nearly 1.5 million students gambled in 2025, the highest figure ever recorded.
The rise of the phenomenon
The data revealed by the study, explains Agic, “show an increase in the involvement of minors in gambling – a phenomenon that is, by definition, illegal given the ban on access by minors – and a wider prevalence of behavioural addictions, ranging from digital addiction to online and physical gambling”.
The association points out that ‘the figures speak for themselves: according to the Report, 60 per cent of students have gambled at least once in the past year, with the proportion of those classified as “at risk” and “problematic” on the rise compared with 2024. These are figures that Agic has no intention of downplaying in any way’.
The figure rises to 64 per cent (1.6 million people) when students who have gambled at least once in their lives are taken into account. The most popular games are scratch cards (76%), football betting (37%), poker, roulette and craps (30%) and machines such as AWP and VLT (28%). Also, the online gambling is on the rise: the Report notes that over 340,000 students (14%) gambled online in 2025.
Child’s play
According to the association, however, it must be emphasised that – given that underage gambling is, by definition, a phenomenon that takes place outside the bounds of the law and often via channels lacking effective age and identity checks – ‘further weakening the licensing system, rather than strengthening its safeguards, risks shifting even more demand towards these very same unregulated channels, with the paradoxical effect of increasing, rather than reducing, young people’s exposure’.
