Italian Online Gambling Sees New Rules and Regulations

Italy is looking to change things up a bit in the next year by adding some things to their regulations for online gambling. For the first time, existing licenses for online gambling are needing to be renewed, and new licenses are likely to be issued. On top of that, there are provisions for Internet cafe situations that could change things up quite a bit.

The Licensing Situation

The cost of a new license for online gambling in Italy is €200,000, and it's expected that about 120 of these will be issued next year. On top of that, another 10,000 licenses for specific betting shops are expected to be issued, and those bring in €32,000 apiece in fees. A fee of about €18,000 is taken for automated betting machine licenses, and around 5,000 of those are going to be issued.

It's also worth pointing out that Internet cafes are finally getting their day for the clarification of whether or not they're legal. These are operations that essentially allow players to come in and play games like slots and blackjack on computers through third party sites, but they've operated in sort of a legal grey area until now.

Status of Internet Cafes

For the time being, it's looking like these cafes will be required to get licensed to operate. It's not clear which license they'll need to get, though it's most likely the ones for the general betting shops, of which about 10,000 are expected to be given in 2016. We'll have to see how it plays out over the next several months, but this is the most likely course of action.

European Regulation Matures

A few years have passed since regulations were passed on a country-by-country level in Europe, and for the first time, we're seeing Italian licenses for online gambling up for renewal. There have been some ups and downs in the country, but they seem to have worked things out for the most part, and it's unlikely that very many companies will not take the option to renew. There may be some business that aren't allowed to post up for renewal for some reason, but there have been no indications of who this could be at this time.

Author: GamesAndCasino