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Italy's Online Casino Restrictions |
| By signing up to the European Union, Italy agreed to follow the legislation and regulations set up by the European Community. However, Italy has recently decided to implement their own rules for the online casino industry. The country is trying to crack down on 'unauthorized' foreign online casino sites. Currently, according Italian law, only 6 online casinos are authorized. It seems rather strange that Italy is willing to violate the European Community rules in order to allow self regulation for the casino industry. In 2004 Italy recorded national revenues of more than $1.4 billion brought in by the country's online casinos; and a total of about 1.8 million online gamblers playing within Italy. It seems that by cracking down on 'unauthorized' online casino sites, the Italian government is just trying to ensure that the state-owned sites will receive the players, thus profits will not be sent out of the country. The plan is to require Internet Service Providers to filter against the unauthorized casinos; non-compliance will result in fines ranging from $36,000-$215,000. The downside of Italy's online casino plan is rather great as they are violating the laws that were instated by the European Community to guard against such state-defined laws. By limiting the online casino industry Italy has gone against five categories set up by the EU; including the freedom of establishment and the freedom to provide cross-border services as well as the freedom to supply telecommunication services. It seems that the benefits of the EU vastly outweigh the financial profits the online casino restrictions will provide Italy. |
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