Outlook for Italian online gambling dim, says lawyer
News on 10 Jul 2013
News on 10 Jul 2013
Delegates at this week’s World Gaming Executive Summit conference in Barcelona this week listened to a rather depressing assessment of the Italian online gambling market by Quirino Mancini, a partner with SCM Lawyers, who said that the prospects for the remote gambling market in Italy are ‘bleak’ with most operators barely surviving.
Mancini said that the Italian market has great appeal for operators, but that it is crowded and competitive, is entering a consolidation phase and is subject to a taxation model that is a long way from being ideal.
Representatives from Italian regulator AAMS were in the audience.
“A few operators are doing very well but the majority are simply surviving,” said Mancini, noting that Pokerstars is flourishing, as is Lottomatica, 888 and others.
“If I were a licensed operator in Italy I would feel as if I was being viewed as dodgy, as risky – falling under suspicion,” said Mancini.
“But these companies have invested a lot in Italy, paid good money in taxes and public perception is so important – to be seen as a legitimate business contributing a lot of tax.”
Remote gambling contributes less than 10 percent to total gaming revenues in Italy, but its regulation was important in terms of restricting unlicensed and illegal activity, Mancini opined.
“The Italian black market used to be served by a big unlicensed group of operators. We still have a sizable illegal gaming offer in Italy but this is not as big or threatening as it used to be,” he concluded.
Recent AAMS numbers suggest that the legalisation of online slot action boosted online casino revenues in the Italian market by as much as 80 percent.
Online casino revenues in H1 2013 were up 94.5 percent to Euro 114 million . However, online poker fared less well, with gross gaming revenue from online cash games in H1 down 33.5 percent to Euro 78.5 million, while tournament revenue has down 36.9 percent to Euro 57 million.
