He asked for citizenship income even though he had won EUR 138,000: convicted

In 2019, he had applied for the citizenship income, without declaring online winnings - between 2017 and 2019 - amounting to almost EUR 138,000: a 40-year-old man from Abruzzo was definitively sentenced to ten months and twenty days' imprisonment in addition to paying court costs.

This was ruled by the third criminal section of the Court of Cassation (judgment 32172/2025), finding the defence's appeal inadmissible. In fact, the man's lawyer argued that he had not violated the law because, despite repeated winnings, the client had always been at a loss. The only exception had been the month of April 2019, during which he had reported a balance of EUR 2,300, still below the EUR 6,000 threshold set by law.

According to the judge, in fact, the player can freely dispose of the sum won and the fact that, overall, the balance is negative does not exclude that that money may have been used to bet again or to offset losses. In fact, the judgement reads: 'The possible situation of poverty in which the person found himself in spite of the winnings is, in short, that of someone who, having an economic availability, dissipated it by gambling'. The court then reflects on the potential consequences of the defendant's argument: not only would ludopathy be fuelled, but gambling would be incentivised by providing state cover for the risk. According to the Supreme Court, therefore, when it is verified that the applicant for the subsidy does not exceed the established income threshold, it is not the net winnings that must be taken into account, but the gross winnings. In other words, it is not the difference between how much was wagered and how much was cashed in - that is, how much actually remained in the gambler's pocket - that counts, but the total income, regardless of how it was spent.