Online Gambling Regulation in Italy

Gambling legislation is very extensive. The Italian government's approach toward gambling follows that of many other countries in Europe and in the Western block. Gambling for real money is basically considered illegal. The State has the preemptive right on, and the exclusive power to offer, gambling. The government has increased the responsibilities of a pre-existing government agency, AAMS (Amministrazione Autonoma dei Monopoli di Stado – Autonomous Administration of the State Monopolies) to include the gambling market. It has entrusted to AAMS all matters related to gambling, from the issuance of license for offering gambling schemes and services to the enforcement of all administrative legal aspects of gambling. So, for gaming, betting, lotteries, games of chance, and likes to be legal, they are to be offered, organized, and managed in compliance with specific laws, regulation, and licenses. The sanctions for violation of these conditions are usually very serious, often penal nature: criminal trial, imprisonment, fines, forfeitures, bails, parole, publishing of the conviction decision, and other forms of limitation of one's physical freedom (such as baing prohibited from entering gambling halls). Additionally, other violations of Italy's gambling laws are punished with administrative actions (i.e. following an administrative proceeding rather than a criminal trial) ranging from monetary fines to the suspension or withdrawal of business licenses to the blocking of websites.

The transition in Italy from a general ban on illegal gambling to differentiating what is permissible and what not permissible proceeds disjointedly through different statues of enacted in different periods, each bearing a different rationale and not really keeping linguistic consistency.

Italy's government advocates to itself the original franchising authority on gambling (which is then diligently licensed under extensive regulations) for two main reasons: to carry out policing authority in the area of social mores and public order; and to subject gambling to the reach of the government's fiscal net.

In December 2007, the Italian Government sent proposals to Brussels that, according to Quirio Mancini of Sinisi Ceschini Manchini & Partners, were aimed at revising the country's licensing requirements to make them more EU-friendly. In return, Brussels might consider dropping the infringement proceedings that were initiated against Italy for its blacklisting and blocking of gambling websites in 2006. These proposed revisions included:

Removal of the original stipulation that license applicants had to establish a company in Italy; under the new riles, it can be a company anywhere else in the EU;
Previously, gaming servers also had to be based in Italy; again these can now be located outside Italy in the EU;
The license fee would be reduced and would continue to decrease for every year the license is renewed.