Online Gambling in Italy - CM banned in Italy

orion

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even if I know that italian members here are (I should say were) less than 1% of the total, I think that somebody could have some curiosity about what is going on on our market.

- the first (and saddest) news is that since july 31st 2018 our beloved governative AAMS agency had decided that also CM site and forum is someway "dangerous" for italian people, and consequently they banned it. Next day all users having Vodafone as phone/internet supplier could not reach CM anymore, then during the first week of August other operators followed, actually I think its impossible to reach these pages without using a proxy/vpn (as I am doing right now), or modifying the DNS (when possible).

The reasons of this ban could be many. I am usually a bit naive and what I do think is that they saw the world "casino" into the casinomeister siteaddress, and they decided this is a casino, without even wasting 30 seconds of their time for a second look.

A friend of mine who is a bit more cynical than me, says that this is a further step to insulate us from the rest of the world. Actually, here on CM we can see as the "normal" online casinos SHOULD run. I mean RTPs, promotions, Casino Service, etcetera. Then, we open an italian casino...the difference is huge and evident. Maybe my friend is not too far from the truth.

Casinomeister is informed (by me) about this ban since day 1. I guess he feels sad, but I don't know if he is doing anything to solve this, and to be honest I don't know what he can really do. I know some people waiting for a reply from AAMS since 2013 and still counting.

- together with Casinomeister, some last ".com" casinos which were still offering their services to us, have been banned. Actually I think there is no more any possibility for us to play on international casinos. IMPO this is a bad news, since I can't recall any situation of monopoly / autarchy which lead to the better.

- there are rumors that in the next future also Casumo and Videoslots (as casinos) and Marathonbet (sportbook) will enter into our market with their ".it" operations. Good news ? Time will tell, but I am sceptical. Stated that both Casumo and Videoslots are in the top-5 list all times, still I doubt they can do something different from the others. I don't think this is market where true competition can have place. Anyway, time will tell. Surely, I am curious to see how VS will handle the "MY RTP" thing. :D

Maybe some "beta tests" are already going on. :rolleyes:

- yesterday our Parliament gave the final green light to the "Dignity Decree law" (Decreto Dignità) which, between several other points, wants to regulate the advertising, publicity and sponsorship of gambling (both online and offline). The main point is that any form of advertising, publicity and sponsorship (also online) is prohibited, except the actual contracts. (And you can imagine how franticly new contracts have been signed in the last 7-10 days). :D This Decree Law will be enforced in the next few days.

On paper, this is something big. On real life, many doubts and questions are arising.

How can they ticket somebody who is online sponsoring a casino, if this somebody is abroad ? would they ban his site, as they did with CM ? are we going towards a total ban of the internet then ?

how much % of the casinos / sportbooks income is going to be reduced, due to the impossibility to do advertisement ? how the casinos would compesate this loss ? :D

what about the casinos which are going to open in the next future (see above point about Casumo and VS): how will they promote their new activities ?

what about emails containing promotions ? would them be considered as advertisement ?

what about football teams (and sport in general) ? also in Serie A many main sponsors are sportbooks.

there are many many many oher questions arising but my post si becoming too long and I don't want to bother you.


Most probably, considering the situation, I'll quit my gambling career. After 15 years of online everyday gambling. Millions and millions of spins done. Time for a change.


If still there is any other italian member active here, I'd be delighted reading his comments, and maybe I'll see some other points of view. I must admit I begin feeling alone here. :(

Also, if any casinorep or player wants to share his toughts, it would be appreciated.
 
IMO the Italian government has lost its plot in this issue. It's one thing to try to defend a state monopoly, but quite another to start banning internet sites.

National gambling monopolies are not the way to go. However they are justified. I'd love to see EU take measures to dismantle them. Cencorship/blocking sites jeopardises freedom of expression and should be challenged under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (if national safeguards fail or are not present).

I feel for the Italian members here. This is just plain bs.
 
I'm going to see if I have any contacts with the AAMS - perhaps I can persuade them to lift the ban.

They have www.casinomeister.com listed, but not casinomeister.com. So there may be a way around that. I don't know.
 
I'm going to see if I have any contacts with the AAMS - perhaps I can persuade them to lift the ban.

They have www.casinomeister.com listed, but not casinomeister.com. So there may be a way around that. I don't know.


I wouldn't bother; things will probably have changed by next week as they have an election every 35 minutes or so in Italy. :D

I've had deposits at casinos that have lasted longer than many Italian governments.
 
I feel bad for countries where the government controls internet content.

We came close here last month when the Quebec government tried to do the same thing (not CM specifically but tried to pass a law for ISP to block online gambling so they can protect ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶s̶u̶m̶e̶r̶s̶ their monopoly). Canadian government blocked that shit in court and basically told them to fuck off.

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And more will follow. I believe many here do not see the whole picture and has a one sided view.
 
Good move, Italy! :rolleyes: <--- (we have one)

And yeah - it's censorship, protectionism, and just plain ignorance since Casinomeister has done more for the Italian player than any other casino information website in the English language.

Back in the day, when 32Red gained their AAMS license, their Italian legal rep signed up in the forum with the intention of assisting any Italian players. I haven't seen any other website taking these sort of actions. We are also media partners with Clarion Events - which hold events periodically in Italy not to mention the rest of Europe who have Italian CEOs etc. who subscribe to our industry newsletter.

So yeah, it's a suck ass moment for our Italian members.
 

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