Fair Forum 2025 Foundation: industry needs to change pace

The results of the research carried out by Ipsos were presented today at the MoMec in Rome, during the FAIR Foundation Forum 2025 – the first annual event promoted by the FAIR Foundation – in the presence of institutions, operators, and scholars from the gaming industry. The Forum was created with the aim of promoting a cultural change that makes gaming more conscious, sustainable, and oriented towards people's well-being, laying the foundations for a new social pact between institutions, operators, and citizens.

In this context, the study, based on interviews with institutional figures and industry operators, has outlined a complex and still polarized picture of the gaming world in Italy, where negative perceptions rooted in time persist and where the concept of responsible gaming, although widely known, struggles to translate into effective practices.

The research shows that gambling continues to be predominantly associated with addiction, risk, money, and chance, an image that is essentially unchanged from ten years ago, confirming that there has been little evolution in public perception, despite regulatory and awareness-raising initiatives. Furthermore, 80% of institutional stakeholders believe that the social role of the sector has worsened over the last decade.

According to respondents, changes in the sector, from growth in supply to digitalization, have contributed to a gradual normalization of gambling and an increase in risk situations, especially for the most vulnerable individuals.

Furthermore, although almost all respondents claimed to be familiar with the concept of responsible gaming (94% of operators, 87% of institutional entities), they offered profoundly different interpretations: operators tend to emphasize individual self-regulation by players, while institutions point to the need for shared responsibility between the state, operators, and the community. Despite this, 71% of institutional entities consider responsible gaming to be little or not at all applied in the Italian context, mainly due to the difficulty of identifying problem gamblers and making prevention tools effective. Added to this is a lack of familiarity with the regulatory framework: Decree Law 41 of 2024, while representing an important step in the reorganization of the online sector, is only superficially known and is not yet considered sufficient to guarantee real protection and greater transparency.

“The results of the research show a sector in need of a change of pace, capable of overcoming polarization and transforming responsible gaming into a concrete, measurable, and effective practice,” says Matteo Caroli, President of the FAIR Foundation. "Our goal is to promote a cultural change that leads to a more conscious, sustainable, and people-oriented approach to gaming. The debates promoted and organized by Fondazione FAIR aim to create a structured, competent, and constructive dialogue, promoting shared solutions and more advanced tools for player protection, transparency of offerings, and consumer safety."

Finally, the research highlights the urgent need for more comprehensive national legislation, accompanied by improved traceability, more transparent communications, and educational initiatives aimed primarily at young people. Only an integrated approach involving institutions, operators, the third sector, and the scientific community - the interviewees emphasize - can ensure the sector's evolution toward higher standards that are truly oriented toward responsibility.

To download the research:
https://www.fondazionefair.org/en/research/observatory-on-responsible-gaming