Gambling in Campania: A Worrying Phenomenon

In Campania, there is almost one active online gaming account per person, a striking fact: in the course of 2024, as many as 843 thousand new accounts in legal casinos. In addition to remote gaming, Neapolitans and Salerno residents are among those who place the most sports bets through agencies, and in Campania, municipalities with fewer than 15 inhabitants set national records for per capita wagering.

Campanians, as the numbers show, love to gamble, and remote gambling is particularly popular. This is confirmed by data published in the third edition of the Gambling Black Book, the 2025 edition, edited by Federconsumatori and CGIL. During 2024, the region calculated 3.338.578 active online accounts in casinos licensed by the Customs and Monopolies Agency, the best online casinos in Italy individually tested by iGaming.com.

This number, which in itself is not very significant, becomes significant when compared to the population. In practice, on Italian casino sites there are 817 active accounts per thousand inhabitants between 18 and 74 years old. This figure places the region at the top of the Italian rankings, followed at a distance by Sicily with 659 cases per thousand inhabitants and Calabria with 644 cases. This figure is almost double the national average of 471 cases.

How much can you win with the game?

You play a lot and you win, sometimes even a lot. And it's precisely the strokes of luck and the millionaire winnings which often make the bets soar even more. The most recent one is that of one million euros pocketed last July 15th in Telese, in the province of Benevento, with the MillionDay. And who could forget the legendary 6 he hit in Naples at the SuperEnalotto in May 2024 with a ticket worth just 2 euros: the lucky player took home 101 million euros.

Despite these extremely fortunate events, the "house" always gets its share, even for online bets. Considering the year 2024, remote collections were €13 and winnings were €76. This means that 94,2% of the total wagered went back into the pockets of the players and 5,8% was the actual spending.

Neapolitans lead the way in live betting

Naples confirms itself as the province where the highest number of sports bets In agencies. Despite the convenience of remote gaming at the best casinos, people continue to bet at local agencies. The reference period is from January to May 2025, during which €513,1 million was spent throughout Italy. In Naples and its province, spending was 78.513.999 million, more than double that of Rome and its province.

Among the provinces of Campania, it is surprising to find Caserta in the Italian top five, where €20.944.211 million is more than in Palermo. Salerno comes in third among the Campania provinces, with over €17. Avellino follows at some distance with €541 and Benevento with €4.

With regard to the virtual betting niche in agenciesNaples once again emerged as the province with the highest gambling expenditure in the first months of 2025, with a total of €34.893.211. Salerno also made the top ten, with a total of €6.470.267.

Per capita gambling and addiction

Looking at the data relating to per capita gambling, Campania once again leaps to the top of the national rankings with €2346 per capita wagered in 2024, compared to a national average of €1563. Note that this figure was calculated for the entire resident population, including newborns. If the average is calculated for the gambling-age population, aged 18-74, this rises to 3198 euro each.

The figure increases for the individual provinces of Salerno with 3313 euros per capita, Naples with 3237 euros and Salerno with 3223. Below the regional average are Avellino with 2833 euros and Benevento with 2753. The case of the Municipality of Castel San Giorgio With a per capita annual spending of over €18 per person, just on online gambling. The town of about thirteen thousand inhabitants leads this ranking, followed by Campania's second-highest municipality, San Cipriano d'Aversa, in fifth place, with a per capita income of €6320.

In the process of being published DGA Bulletin for 2024, a document publishing data on gambling disorder, compiled by Data Room AS.TRO. Currently available are figures from the Naples 3 Sud health authority, which treats 374 people, and those from the Caserta local health authority, which reports 86 people being treated for addiction problems.

Editorial Team

We are the editorial staff of Cronache della Campania. It may seem like an abstract account, but we can assure you that these articles are always written by a human—in fact, more than one, which is why we use this account. To learn more about our editorial staff, visit the "Editorial Staff" page above in the menu, or at the bottom. Enjoy!