Italian media reveal online gambling figures

Since the Italian regulator AAMS stopped making online gambling statistics publicly available two years ago, reliable information on the local scene has been hard to come by, but the problem was solved by the ever-inquisitive Italian media this week.

Accessing figures that are apparently only available to licensed operators these days, the report claimed that whilst general online gambling continues to progress, internet poker has followed the trend in most markets and declined, especially in cash game action where revenues in H1-2015 are alleged to have plunged 23 percent to Euro 44.7 million.

Typically, tournament poker appears to have fared better, with the report commenting that these revenues were more stable, surmising that tournament poker dominates the skill games category, which showed just a 3 percent decline.

Online gambling in general continued to progress, according to the report, and GGR was up almost 9 percent to Euro 390 million, with casino growth of 24 percent and sports betting 18 percent year-on-year in the first half.

Italy ring-fences its online poker player pools, limiting player liquidity, and this could be one reason for the decline; another could be the ageing Italian demographic still interested in the game

Pokerstars still dominates online poker activity in Italy with 66 percent market share in cash game traffic, according to the report.