After the publication of the decree on the Official Gazette, new operators will be able to apply for an Italian remote gaming license.
On the basis of a preliminary review of the draft decree, the most relevant provisions appear to be the following:
- The company holding the remote gaming license has to be established in any country of the European Economic Area, but the servers of the company can be located in any country of the EEA or in any other country that has entered into a bilateral agreement with AAMS;
- Operators will be entitled to resell gaming vouchers to recharge gaming accounts and therefore the so called "punti di commercializzazione" will not be fully banned, but it will be prohibited the installation of gaming terminals (i.e. totems);
- The guidelines for the certification of gaming platforms for poker cash games and casino games were notified together with the draft decree and, as a consequence of that, the launch of such new games is likely to occur shortly after the final approval of the decree.
Given the above, it is time to get ready for new operators planning to target the Italian gaming market.