The country’s tax authority has reclassified table football as a form of gambling, requiring café owners to pay for permits or face €4,000 fines, Italy24 News English reports.

An opposition senator has said she is already aware of two beach clubs in Puglia, in the south of Italy, who have been slapped with fines for failing to have the right permits.

Now many cafés are believed to be throwing out their football tables – which bring in very little income – rather than go through the expensive process of applying for a permit.

According to The Times, Fabrizio Locordari, head of beach club managers’ group Assobalneari, said: “It’s shocking. I grew up playing table football at my local parish hall and at the beach, as did thousands of Italians, and now some frustrated bureaucrat is taking it away.”