Yet another change to the Italian AWP regulations may be on the way.
Industry leaders and regulators are talking about changes to the current Comma 6A law which governs payout machines in the street market. This is the largest sector in Italy, with around 300,000 machines.
There are proposals to change the maximum stake from €1 to €2 and the top prize from €100 to €200, as well as permit the use of bill acceptors/dispensers in the machines.
The move is inspired by operators who are complaining that the introduction of VLTs into the market is seriously affecting the AWPs. Although there are only 30,000 VLTs in Italy, wherever they are competing with AWPs they far outstrip the AWP performance. Industry observers feel that despite only representing 10 per cent of the installed machine base, VLTs are responsible for about 25 per cent of total revenues.
The negotiations at present include a trade-off for the Italian taxman with a proposal that the current 12 per cent tax on the coins-in should increase to 13 per cent but that the legal minimum payout can be reduced from 75 per cent to 74 per cent.
