Italian Government Places Severe Restrictions on Poker Players

First it was the US Government, then the Russian Government and now the Italian Government has placed severe restrictions on poker players across it’s country.  On the 27th of July this year the Italian Government successfully restricted access to online gambling, in particular online poker games, with consent from the EU.

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Back in 2006 the Italian Government forced internet service providers in the country to block all gaming entities which operate outside of the country's borders.  This move by the Italians was met with disagreement by the European Union who responded threatening legal actions against Italy for violating EU free trade rules so the Italian Government reluctantly lifted the restrictions.  Since that time however, the Italian Government has been in talks with the EU establishing what sanctions are acceptable, and as of the 27th July 2009 have put these sanctions into place.

These new restrictions for online gambling, especially online poker will certainly upset poker players across Italy.  The new restrictions include; the banning of online poker cash games/ ring games, restrictions on the amount of time you can actually play online poker for, the site server must be located within the Italian jurisdiction, any poker site operators serving Italians are only allowed to accept Italian players and all poker sites in Italy most hold a State Monopolies Autonomous Administration’ (AAMS) license which is granted by the Italian Government.

PokerStars got in ahead of the game to hang on to their Italian customers by brokering a deal with the Italian government and launching PokerStars.it, PokerStars exclusively Italian site which meets all of the AAMS requirements.  Now when Italian PokerStars players log into their account they are re-routed to the Italian version of the world’s largest online poker cardroom.  This was a shrewd move by PokerStars ensuring that they can continue to offer online poker to their valued Italian-based players.

To play at PokerStars simply click the banner above and register for your free poker account by following some simple steps and downloading the PokerStars client software.

31st July 2009

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Article Last Updated: 25/05/2010 14:41:44

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