ITALY Law and Practice Contributed by: Stefano Sbordoni, Sbordoni & Partners
The normative sources that regulate the legal public gaming in Italy are: • EU Regulations and Directives; • Articles 718 to 723 of the Italian Criminal Code; • Articles 1933 to 1935 of the Italian Civil Code; • Articles 86, 88 and 110 of TULPS; • ordinary state laws: • presidential and ministerial decrees; • regional laws and municipal regulations; and • ADM regulations and guidelines. The Italian Civil Code distinguishes between: • lawful betting (ie, poker, roulette, etc), for which there is no legal action for the payment of a gam- bling or betting debt, even if the gambling or bet- ting is not prohibited, unless the debtor proves that they have suffered fraud or are incapable (Article 1933); • protected betting, such as horse racing and sports betting (Article 1934) and authorised lotteries (Arti- cle 1935), for which there is legal action. Articles 86 and 88 of TULPS contain rules regarding licences for gaming and betting. Article 110 of TULPS contains rules regarding licences for amusement machines (AWP machines/VLTs). For further details, please refer to 4.10 Personal Licensing . Law No 401/1989 introduced measures to address illegal gambling and betting and to ensure fair play at sporting events. Article 3, paragraph 230 of Law No 549/1995 (the “Financial Law 1996”) established that “the organi[s] ation and exercise of totali[s]er and fixed-odds bets reserved to CONI on sports competitions organi[s]ed or carried out under its control can be entrusted in concession to single operators or companies that offer adequate guarantees”. It also vested the MEF with the power to issue the relevant regulations/decrees. As mentioned in 2.2 Land-Based Gambling , Legisla- tive Decree No 504/1998 officially recognises sports betting as a legal activity under state control, grants the State ‒ through the ADM ‒ the power to issue con- cessions for the management of agencies, introduces
taxation on betting (a flat tax), and establishes that bets can only be collected through authorised dealers. With Legislative Decree No 300/1999, all responsi- bilities in the gaming and betting sector have been assigned to the ADM. Law No 133/1999 (Article 16), Law No 311/2004 and the subsequent Ministerial Decree No 111/2006 gov- ern the collection of totaliser and fixed-odds bets on sporting events (apart from horse racies) as well as on non-sporting events. Ministerial Decree No 156/2001 attributed to the MEF the competence to authorise the licensee to collect bets by telephone or telematics (online). Law No 266/2005 (the “Financial Law 2006”) gave the ADM the power to regulate the online gaming sector as well, with consequent prohibitions for unauthorised sites. The Bersani Decree opened the horse race betting and sports betting market to all national and foreign operators meeting certain reliability requirements. Arti- cle 38, paragraph 1b of the Bersani Decree introduced “skill games” – defined as “remote games with cash winnings, in which the result depends, to a greater extent than on the random element, on the skill of the players” (ie, draughts, chess, bridge, poker, Texas Hold’em, etc) – and establishes that these games can only be played on online sites managed by conces- sionaires authorised by the ADM. AML legislation was introduced by Legislative Decree No 231/2007 as amended and concerns all land- based and online gaming and betting operators. The Community Law 2008 also includes provisions regarding the public gaming sector to align Italian legislation with EU legislation on gaming and betting, thus allowing the free flow of services within the EU. Specifically, the law provides that: • gaming regulations (especially regarding legal gaming types, such as slot machines, betting, and online gaming) must be regulated by legislative decrees or specific regulations;
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