Italian Authorities Resubmit Draft Law, Back on Track for Regulated Internet Gambling

Full regulation of Internet gambling in Italy moves closer after a slight delay in legal proceedings. Yesterday, the Italian Gaming Authority resubmitted its proposed draft law to the European Commission. The law would regulate Internet casinos and online poker sites in Italy and continues the path first begun in 2008.  

The draft law had to be resubmitted after network service provider Microgame filed a legal complaint in Italian court that certain discrepancies existed between the recently submitted draft and the original draft that Microgame officials had seen.  

Now that the wording has been corrected, the new Italian gambling laws could come into effect as early as October 7. Pending review of the documents by the EC, final publication would follow and the regulations described within would become law. 

At the beginning of the decade, Italy had some of the strictest laws regarding online gambling in all of Europe. Several complaints were made to the European Commission regarding unfair trade practices prescribed by European Union law in 2003, and legal action by the EC began in 2006. The EC finally dropped all charges against Italy for its gambling laws in May 2010.