Current State of Online Gambling in Italy

December 20, 2012

Online gambling legislation in Europe can be somewhat confusing to understand. The European Union has some clearly defined directives regarding what it sees as a sensible level of gambling legislation to control and monitor online casino sites. However, some EU member countries, most notable Greece, Ireland and Germany simply pay lip services to these EU directives, and write their own online gambling legislation from the ground up. Until now, Italy had towed the EU line, but this has changed significantly recently.

With hindsight, we can see that Italy has been moving towards a more open online gambling market for some time. The Amministrazione Autonoma dei Monopoli di Stato (AAMS), the Italian governing body which oversees online gambling legislation, has just this month made it much simpler for online casino sites to offer online slots for play within Italy.

Video slots are the most popular online gambling game, and the AAMS has no doubt realized this. Of course, it simply could not legalize online gambling entirely within Italy, but it has legalized online slots, the most lucrative of all online gambling games. The new change to gambling legislation in Italy is expected to net several hundred million euros extra in tax revenue for the Italian government, so we can see just why the AAMS has made this move.

Of course, video slots are a pretty diverse type on online gambling game. We have a whole spectrum of online slots, from simple traditional slots, to themed slots which people seem to play more for fun than for the thrill of wining. And then we have the entire range of progressive jackpot slots, and these are the slot games that traditionally produce the most revenue.

We have to say that we are pretty amazed at the way the AAMS has managed to sidestep EU rulings on online gambling, and make changes to local gambling legislation that allows the Italian government to cash in on around 70% of the revenue it would earn if it legalized online gambling entirely. This is really a win win situation. Online gamblers can play legally, online casino sites can operate legally, and Italy gets a huge chunk of cash to add to its treasury each year. So well done the AAMS, this is really a clever move, and we just know that other countries are bound to follow this example.

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