Italy aims to stamp out organised crime in gambling with new register

The Italian government has released a new draft decree requiring operators to sign up to a single register by January 2020, in a bid to reduce organised crime in gambling.

Under the proposed decree, a single register would help combat the “infiltration of organised crime in the gaming sector and the dissemination of illegal gambling”.

To be included on the register, the Italian regulator must verify that each applicant possesses all required public safety licences, specific concessions in their operating area and all required anti-mafia certifications.

The decree confirms that only operators who are listed on the register will be allowed to provide gambling services to Italian citizens. Operators are required to pay a one-off fee of €200 and registration must be renewed on an annual basis.

In addition, operators found by Italian regulators to be offering unlicensed gambling in Italy will be potentially subject to an administrative penalty of €10,000 and will be barred from registering to offer gambling services in Italy for five years.

Operators are barred from entering contractual relationships with operators who do not appear on the Italian regulators register.

Any operator found to be doing so will be required to terminate said contract under Italian law and will be subject to an administrative penalty of €10,000. The Italian government has confirmed operators who violate this regulation three times over a two-year period may have their concessions to operate gambling in Italy revoked.

The decree also imposes new rules barring Italian banks and credit card operators from processing payments made to and from unlicensed gambling operators. Any financial institution found to be doing so will be subject to a financial penalty of between €300,000 and €1.3m for each single violation.

In addition, the decree authorizes ADM to set up an internal fund expressly for the purposes of investigating violations of Italian gaming law, anti-money laundering standards and any gambling by minors.

In a separate development, Italian legislators have included a so-called “maxi-tax” on winnings from lottery-based gaming which exceed €100m within the state budget for 2020. Under proposals, winners of jackpots which exceed this amount will be required to pay a 23% tax on their winnings, up from the 12% levied previously.

At the other end of the scale, the Italian government has also said it is considering implementing a 12% tax on all winnings of under €500.

The new regulations come less than two weeks after Italy’s largest money laundering investigation, Operation Galassia, issued indictments against several former board members of Italian operator SKS365, for alleged money laundering offences.

The investigation, conducted by a joint task-force made up of Italian federal police and financial crime investigators, centres on a sophisticated online network which used the sites to conduct money laundering, processing more than €4.5bn in bets using laundered funds.

Investigators have accused the operators of “knowingly acting” as money laundering vehicles for the network, which allegedly has links to three mafia families.