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Games were important to the people: see what a character from Petronius Arbiter's Satyricon says about it. The expense was enormous, and the problem must have been a grave one, because at the times of Tiberius the Senate forbid the organization of games to the citizens with a patrimony valued less than 400.000 sestertia (which was the equivalent of the wealth needed to be part of the census equestris, or knighthood). Even foundations were established by testament for games to be offered in the future, with the money from the interests.

The business must have been a big one,and a good one for the emperors, because the lanistae were heavily taxed (at the end of the II century the lanistae owed the imperial treasury millions of sestertii). Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Commodus put a limit to the expense of the shows, and to the price of gladiators. The price for gladiators was linked to the overall expense of the show, so that the price of a first class gladiator could be 5.000 sestertii in a 30.000/60.000 sestertii show, but could arrive to 15.000 sestertii in a 200.000 sestertii editio.

The prohibition to hold games, or their limit, could in any case be overtaken by a Senate decision. The Syracusans appealed to the Senate to have a greater number of gladiators than normally allowed, and a magistrate in Pesaro gave 8 (eight!!) games, but he did it under direct permission of the emperor (ex indulgentia Augustii).