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Italian gaming advertising regulations previously approved by the Government have now been ratified by the Parliament with the implementation of some changes. Also, the Italian advertising self-regulatory body adopted gaming advertising self-regulatory rules. The problem is the impact of these regulations and how they live together.
The major change implemented compared to the decree approved by the Government relates to the fact that it is now prohibited the broadcasting of gaming advertisements not only during the course of TV, radio, cinema programs mainly addressed to minors but also in the 30 minutes before and after them. Also, the gaming advertising regulations now stress even more that the percentage of payout shall be specified in the ad.
However, such gaming laws still prohibit any advertisement aimed at “creating an incentive to the gambling activity or to exalt the game” which is very broad wording that might include any type of gaming advertising . The matter is relevant since such gaming laws provide for fines up to € 500,000 for their breach and the fact that the fine can be issued both against operators and media owners implies that media owners are unlikely to broadcast gaming ads without a prior approval of the ad by AAMS. At the same time, the Italian advertising self-regulatory body has adopted an addendum to the advertisingself-regulatory code with provisions aimed at regulating gambling advertising.
Unfortunately such provisions are not in line with the regulations approved by the Parliament and therefore gambling campaigns shall make sure that they are compliant with both the primary regulations approved by the Parliament and the gaming advertising self-regulatory rules. Indeed, even if the breach of such self-regulatory rules does not trigger fines, since all the major media companies are signatories of the self-regulatory advertising code, the breach of the code will lead to the termination of the advertising campaign on the channels of communications controlled by companies that are signatories of the code.
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