A new start for the Italian gaming market
Giulio Coraggio, senior associate at DLA Piper, looks at the new Italian egaming draft decree.
The Italian Gaming Authority has just notified to the European Commission the draft decree setting out the new Italian licensing regime for remote games.
The review of the draft decree by the European Commission and the other EU Member States will last three months up to 15 October 2010, and, if it is not challenged during this period, the draft decree will be approved shortly after this date.
The draft decree contains several provisions relevant both to potential new entrants to the Italian online gaming market and for current operators:
· Rules for the award of 200 additional online gaming licenses, including the important proviso that operators applying for an Italian online gaming licence will be entitled to locate its legal seat and technical infrastructure in any country of the European Economic Area. This will trigger considerable tax benefits as operators will be only obliged to pay Italian gaming taxes.
· Guidelines for the certification of gaming platforms in relation to cash poker games and casino games, so adding the last piece of legislation necessary for the upcoming launch of such new games.
· Regulatory changes involving in particular the gaming terminals, so-called “totems”, that are at the moment located in most of the Italian shops. These will be finally banned with a consequential advantage for the new entrants in the market that could not rely on a network of totems. Likewise, the so called punti di commercializzazione, (retail outlets entitled under the current regime to distribute and collect the gaming account agreements of gaming operators and vouchers) will not be regulated any more. This means operators will not be allowed to collect the gaming account agreements through shops and the distribution of vouchers will not anymore be subject to the relevant formalities prescribed by the current regime, but will fall under the same general regulations governing for instance the sale of mobile top-up cards.
· Adopts the so-called “card of services”, an agreement between operators and players aimed at ensuring a higher level of transparency.
These new regulations are expected to be welcomed by new entrants to the market, as they will be able to obtain a licence without moving their infrastructure to Italy, while also preserving the tax benefits of their current jurisdiction of establishment.
Most current operators in the Italian gaming market will also welcome the decree, as the ban of totems and the limitations on the activities of shops previously qualified as “punti di commercializzazione” is likely to considerably limit the illegal activities that had to date taken place through shops being operated as gaming shops even though they did not hold any licence for this.