Italy implements blanket ban on gambling advertising
Gambling trade body Logico says “legal and legitimate operators will be irremediably sunk” by coalition government’s new marketing regulations
Italy’s coalition government has introduced a blanket ban on gambling advertising that will take effect from June 2019.
The country’s newly-appointed coalition approved the legislative Dignity Decree last night.
The decree introduces a broad gambling ban, outlawing all forms of advertising of gambling products and services across all media outlets.
This includes on television, radio and the internet, as well as during sporting, cultural, and entertainment events, while gambling sponsorships in football will also be prohibited.
The legislation will however allow regulator AAMS to broadcast commercials on the National Lottery.
Operators with advertising contracts in place will be able to advertise gambling services until their current licence expires, with no option for renewal. All advertising activity must cease by June 2019.
The new law was implemented to tackle a so-called problem gambling epidemic in Italy, but the industry’s has warned players will now gamble on foreign unlicensed gambling sites that can advertise through third-party affiliates and offer zero regulatory protections.
Moreno Marasco, president of Italy’s gambling trade association, Logico, told EGR Intel: “The intention of the government to fight compulsive gaming disorder is understandable, legitimate and noble.
“If only the result of its poor execution wasn’t going to end in the diametrically opposite direction.
“By preventing all legal, legitimate operators from standing out from the crowd of illegal operators, which still thrive due to the unsolved holes of Italian regulation, the government has given the latter undesired tailwinds, while legal and legitimate operators will be irremediably sunk.”
He added: “We are obviously available to the government and will support them in improving the quality of our ads so that they are ‘sterilised’ if they cause an itch to public opinion, but we cannot delete 10 plus years of consolidation of the legal market to the advantage of illegal operations.”