Casino and Cash Poker Decree: Now Published!

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After a never-ending waiting, the Italian casino games and cash poker games decree has been finally published on the Official Gazette and has now come into force.
In a nutshell the decree prescribes that:

operators need to go through an authorization process relating to their platform and each game they intend to offer;
the gaming tax applicable on cash games and casino games is 20% of the revenues (i.e. turnover net of amount returned to players);
at least 90% of the amount collected from players is allocated to the prizes;
the maximum initial stake cannot be higher than € 1,000.

Also, the decree increased up to € 250 the maximum buy-in for skill games (including tournament based poker games) and also allowed the organization of multilevel tournaments where the winner of a gaming session (e.g. a qualification tournament) is obliged to invest the win as a buy-in for the subsequent gaming session (e.g. the final tournament).
Hopefully with the upcoming approval of the decree on new licenses, the Italian gaming market by next spring will see a number of new entrants in the market and an offering of games equal to those currently available on .COM websites.
These events are expected to double the turnover of the Italian online gaming market and we will see whether there will be opportunities also for non-gaming operators (e.g. media, telecom, mail companies) through joint ventures with gaming operators.

Some gaming operators are currently willing to sell their company and new entrants are looking around to identify potential targets. We will see which players will lead the market.

Do you want to know more on the above? Feel free to contact me, Giulio Coraggio.

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