ITALIANS TO CHANGE REMOTE SPORTSBETTING RULES

13 July 2007

Drafting on new regulation still underway

The AAMS (Amministrazione Autonoma dei Monopoli di Stato - AAMS or Autonomous Administration of State Monopolies, a part of the Ministry of Economy and Finances) which regulates Italian gambling in terms of Italian financial laws, has indicated that its recently liberated view of online (or "remote") gambling may be tightened up .

Last week the organisation revealed that work was underway to introduce changes to the regulations for "punti remoti" (remote gambling) which would prohibit the use of cash for wagering, confining online gambling action to credit cards only in operations licensed by it.

It is understood that the Italian move is intended to reduce the possibility of money laundering and other undesirable Internet gambling risks, and that the new regulations will probably be introduced in 2008.

From an online gambling perspective, the Italian approach has been remarkable in that the government policy on Internet gambling swung from attempts to completely ban the phenomenon by ISP blocks, to recognition, legalisation and regulation - all within a year.

Online Casino News courtesy of InfoPowa