Italy opens the doors to poker online … hopefully
Last February, the Italian government launched a war against international online gambling companies. They did it in a very unique way: When you visited a website banned by the Italian government, you would not find the regular page, but a message that informed the customer that that site was not legal in Italy. Amazingly, the government was stealing the traffic to these sites by advertising its own gambling games!
In Italy, ever since I can remember, the government has been offering exciting gambling games for the general inexperienced population, but with extremely low odds. For example, Italian slot machines, legal in bars, have a forced payout of 75 percent. The operators cannot offer a better percentage, or a worse one. (Incidentally, most of Nevada's machines are set at around 93 percent, with peaks at even 99 percent.) The government's line was, "We are trying to protect the population …"
This was clearly a stance that could not prevail for a long time, and now, finally, things are changing. Some sportbooks, both online and land-based, have received licenses from the Italian government, and poker might be close to finally being regulated. It has always been that poker was described in the most famous dictionary
Zingarelli as a game of luck.
The government had always shared this view, but now it seems that starting in 2007, games in which customers are able to learn and use their ability to win will be legalized. Thus far, it seems that tournament poker is viewed as one of these games, and companies will be able to offer online poker tournaments with an Italian license.
Poker fever is rising. TV ratings are very high (similar to basketball games, the second-most popular sport in Italy), and we at
Card Player Italia aim to help the expansion of our beloved game.
Max Pescatori is the CEO of Card Player Italia. You may e-mail him at [email protected].
