Italy's Audit Court Freezes €25.07m Linked to Four Gratta e Vinci Jackpots

The Lazio section of the Corte dei conti issued a precautionary seizure on 23 October 2026 that led the Guardia di Finanza in Rome to freeze more than €25,067,224 in assets from five former employees of the Gratta e Vinci concessionaire. Prosecutors allege the defendants used system access to identify four winning scratchcards—two €7 million first prizes and two €5 million prizes—then had relatives and friends buy them between 2015 and 2019.

The seizure and the prosecutors' claim

Officers of the Guardia di Finanza's Rome provincial command executed the sequestro conservativo to secure the sum that the audit prosecutors say is owed to the Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli (ADM). The audit office filed the order through the Jurisdictional Section of the Corte dei conti for Lazio at the request of its regional prosecutor's office; the five were also served with a summons to trial before the audit court.

Prosecutors put the damage to ADM at €25,067,224, of which €24 million corresponds to the four top prizes: two €7 million tickets and two €5 million tickets. The Guardia di Finanza statement, carried by Jamma and reported by Sky TG24, says the five former employees used their credentials to access company servers and identify the winning tickets, which relatives and friends then bought at the shops to which the concessionaire had shipped the tickets.

The seized assets listed in the order include 25 property units (flats, small villas, garages and cellars) across the provinces of Rome, Viterbo, Treviso, Taranto, Grosseto and Reggio Calabria, five cars and motorcycles, and financial holdings. A designated judge will decide in chambers whether to confirm, modify or revoke the freeze.

Under the presumption of innocence, the seizure is precautionary and liability can be established only by a final judgment of the audit court. The five contest the allegations; a judge must now decide whether the freeze stands and the statement notes that nothing has been proven.

Links to earlier criminal inquiry and investigative detail

The same four tickets first surfaced in an October 2020 criminal investigation led by the Rome public prosecutor and executed by the Guardia di Finanza. In that operation authorities carried out seizures against 12 people under investigation for aggravated fraud, unauthorised access to computer systems, receiving and self-laundering. Media reports from Il Fatto Quotidiano and ANSA identified two €5 million Maxi Miliardario first prizes bought in Milan and in Brescia province in 2015, and €7 million Super Cash tickets bought in Foggia in 2017 and Cremona in 2019.

Milano Finanza and Open report that investigators believe the group built purpose-made software to identify winning tickets and that the inquiry was directed by Deputy Prosecutor General Eleonora Lener. The audit prosecutors first set out their administrative case in an invito a dedurre served in March 2026; prosecutors say the defences did not overcome the allegations, prompting the summons and the request for the freeze.

International Game Technology (IGT) and its subsidiary Lottomatica Holding previously said in 2020 that they had suspended four employees under investigation and cooperated with authorities. The Guardia di Finanza statement in 2026 does not name the concessionaire; Open and some trade accounts name the five as former employees of Lottomatica Holding.

Who holds the concession and how the Treasury frames the loss

The audit prosecutors treat the case as a claim by the State rather than a private claim by the concessionaire. The prosecutors argue that the alleged insiders removed the element of chance: without them, the four top prizes might have gone unclaimed, and unclaimed prize money flows to ADM. That legal framing converts the matter into lost public revenue rather than a simple operator loss; prosecutors therefore seek recovery for the Treasury.

Lotterie Nazionali S.r.l. has held the Gratta e Vinci concession since 2010. At the time of the 2017 extension, Lottomatica Holding held 64% of Lotterie Nazionali, alongside Scientific Games and Arianna 2001. IGT's lottery business now trades as Brightstar; Brightstar's joint venture holds the concession until 30 September 2028. The concession was extended in 2017 for €800 million without a tender.

Market context and implications for the tender timetable

Instant lotteries took €12.9 billion in 2025 through about 52,500 points of sale, according to the Treasury's first report on public gaming summarised by Avviso Pubblico. Jamma's analysis puts the State's take from Gratta e Vinci at about €1.77 billion in 2025. The four prizes at issue total €24 million, a small fraction of these figures, but prosecutors say the alleged conduct undermines the core integrity of the product.

The government committed in July 2025 to bring a new tender forward; the concession remains an option in the 2027 Budget Law. Bidders can expect ADM to ask for contractual controls over staff access to prize data when an early tender is set.

Procedural next steps

A designated judge in the Corte dei conti will consider whether to confirm the precautionary freeze in chambers. If confirmed, the freeze will remain while the audit court proceeds to trial. The audit prosecutors make clear the State's claim rests on a counterfactual—whether the four headline prizes would have remained unclaimed absent the alleged insider conduct—and the judge will have to assess that point. The five defendants remain entitled to the presumption of innocence pending a final judgment.

"Liability can be established only by a final judgment of the audit court," the Guardia di Finanza statement notes.

The audit seizure was executed on 23 October 2026; the invito a dedurre was served in March 2026, and the original criminal probes surfaced in October 2020. The case continues to be reported by national outlets including Sky TG24, Milano Finanza, Open and Il Fatto Quotidiano.