Italy's state regulators have been trying for years to ensure that there are appropriate laws governing online gambling.
Only in March 2020, when with the pandemic there was a big change in the habits of players who, after closing physical rooms, found themselves online, was a new agreement approved between the states, allowing the licensing of online casinos in Itali . Considered casino stranieri affidabili, are examples of casinos that meet the requirements, verified by experts; instead, there are many other criminals who cheat with players and transfer personal data to third parties.
This regulation of Italy online casinos is a radical change for the gaming industry in the country and offers huge opportunities for both established companies and startups that want to enter this sector (which is the largest in Europe). Gambling in Italy has both state and federal regulations. Land-based casinos, betting on horse racing, and land-based and online betting have been allowed.
Instead, these new regulations allowed licensed operators to offer legal online casino games, accompanied by provisions defining important restrictions : deposit limits, product offerings, advertising and affiliate marketing.
What are the details of the new regulations?
While new measures to curb the pandemic are coming into effect in Italy and throughout Europe, Italy needs to understand more than online gambling. This regulation, which came later than in other European countries, allows operators to offer poker, slot machines and other online games nationwide. However, the law does not apply to sports betting, which had already been legalized before.
New portals such as https://cannabisterapeuticalombardia.it/ recognizes four product categories: virtual slots, online poker, sports betting and casino table games. Slots and poker will follow an open licensing model. For other games, the federal government can decide whether to have a monopoly or issue licenses. The number of licenses available corresponds to the number of physical casino license holders in that particular state.
Even for sports betting, there are restrictions: players will essentially only be able to bet on the end result, the score or the next goal. However, unlike slots, an unlimited number of licenses are available here. The new licenses will be valid for 5 years for poker, slot machines and sports betting. On the other hand, those for online casinos will be valid for 7 years.
To ensure a certain uniformity throughout Germany, there will be several regulators that will deal with different states and different issues. For example, the North Rhine-Westphalia regulator deals with lottery advertising and sports betting. The Hesse state regulator is responsible for betting licenses. The Lower Saxony office is responsible for blocking payments for illegal gambling.
Safety measures for players
In Italy we have been thinking for years about player protection and prevention of DGA (gambling disorder). In Italy it is a new regulation that deals with a series of security measures that serve the player and protect the most vulnerable players, problem gamblers and children gambling. In fact, when players first register on the platform, they (finally) have to set a deposit limit per month (which cannot exceed 1000 euros). If a player requests an increase in the limit, the change in deposit only takes effect 7 days after the request, while the option to lower the limit is given immediately.
In addition to the deposit limit, there is an obligation to present an identity document at registration and to confirm the authenticity of this document later. This allows, after some difficult years due to some gaps in legislation, to curb the phenomenon of child gaming, which definitely overwhelmed Itali when there was a quarantine and everyone was playing online. These regulatory gaps essentially led to a lot of confusion in the whole online gaming sector, which found itself without certificates and without laws to refer to, and therefore in total uncertainty.