French and Italian Online Casino Gambling Regulators to Share Data

The French online gaming regulator ARJEL and its Italian counterpart AAMS are expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) sometime next month. The MOU will outline the process for sharing information and open the doors for cooperation between the two gambling regulators in support of both Italian and French gambling laws.

A source within the Italian AAMS disclosed that the two gambling authorities have already been working together for close to a year. The informal cooperation between the two agencies dates back to the passage of the French law regulating online sportsbooks and online casinos in France.

The Italian source told online gambling news in France: “We started discussions as soon as it was established. We have a long history of meetings with them and a very good understanding of each other’s markets. We have been collaborating a lot since then so it is only natural that we should want to formalize this relationship.”

He went on to say “We have been discussing this for some time and hope our director and ARJEL president will sign an agreement in June. It is not clear when exactly this will be signed and this could change. We have similar business models and share several licenses. We already discuss areas such as collusion, integrity, player protection and recently got together to discuss Black Friday and to debate what the right approach was.”

Among the proposed means of information exchange between the two regulatory bodies are special work groups, which will exchange the best approaches to regulation as well as share information about casino cheats and card counters.

Online casinos are worried about a mutually shared blacklist thereby anyone blacklisted by French Casinos will automatically become blacklisted by the Italian Casinos. Since France has a tendency to act before reviewing any evidence, online casino insiders view the current cooperation between the French and Italian regulatory agencies with suspicion.