Italian licences: show time at last?

AFTER the successful European Commission review of the decree setting out the new Italian licensing regime, the EC has decided to close a number of cases against Italian gambling laws.

The EC had challenged some of the restrictions prescribed by Italian gaming laws against foreign operators over their compliance with the EU principle of freedom to provide services .

The old licence regime required that operators holding an Italian online gaming license locate their servers and company in Italy.

Also, Italian laws prohibited the offer of games to Italian residents by entities that do not hold an Italian gaming license, even if they hold a license issued by another EU member State, and obliged Italian Internet service providers to block access to non-Italian licensed websites by Italian residents.

However, as stressed in my previous blog post, under the new Italian licensing regime, operators applying for an Italian gaming license will be entitled to locate their legal seat and equipment in any country of the European Economic Area, or in any other country that will enter into bilateral agreements with the Italian Gaming Authority.

In other words, while operators will still need an Italian license to offer their games to Italian residents, they will be able to keep their infrastructure in their country of origin with obvious consequential tax advantages.

As a consequence of this legal change, the European Commission has deemed that Italian gaming laws ““ which had initially been highly criticised by other operators and authorities ““ are in line with EU principles.

This circumstance is likely to end the long saga of disputes before the European Court of Justice relating to the compliance of the Italian gambling regime.

Moreover, I wonder whether this is also the first step towards the end of illegal ‘dot com’ websites, and the beginning of an era in which operators shall obtain a license in any country where they decide to offer their games.

Operators should not despair though; the Italian Gaming Authority is expected to publish the decree regulating the issue of new licenses this month. It is time to get ready!

giulio.coraggio@hoganlovells.com