Italians lose €22 billion euros on gambling every year, a new report from the country’s top trade union and leading consumer group said Wednesday.

Gambling is soaring in Italy, the report said.

In 2025, total gambling volume reached a record €165.34 billion, a 5% increase over the previous year.

This figure is equivalent to 7.3% of GDP.

But citizens’ losses are also rising, amounting to €21.88 billion, a figure roughly comparable to a government budget.

Each adult spent an average of €3,284 on gambling over the course of the year.

This is the increase in revenues from the fourth edition of the “Black Book on Gambling,” the annual report produced by CGIL, Federconsumatori, and the Isscon Foundation, in collaboration with Federconsumatori Modena.

This year’s title is “The Losing State.” The most worrying growth, the report highlights, concerns online gambling, which surpassed the €100 billion threshold in revenue for the first time in 2025 (€100.88 billion), a 9.5% increase over 2024 and a whopping 221% compared to 2018.

Active online gamblers are estimated at 4.8 million, with alarming growth among young people.

A regional analysis is also included.