The status of iGaming licenses in Italy in 2020-2021

Italy's gaming regulator now faces pushback from several iGaming license holders in the country after the ADM Customs and Monopolies Agency decided not to extend the licenses of several prominent casino brands in the country, whose licenses expired at the end of October.

The Italian Senate has supported the watchdog in ruling against possible extensions and turned down a proposed 18-month push back of license cancellations through December 2022.

This has prompted a backlash from the industry, with as many as 30 online operators showing concern over the future of their operations in Italy, a market which has slowly being growing conservative and restrictive of gambling businesses.

Italy's Regulators Challenged in Court

With a lot at stake, several companies have already made a move that has been settled in court. Betway, SportPesa and Nexigames rallied early on and managed to buy themselves time until a public hearing set for November 4.

SportPesa called on Tonucci & Partners, a law firm, for its legal defense and to argue its case in front of Italian court.

Clearly, the pushback from the industry has been a success because late in November, the Lazio TAR Administrative Court has ruled in favor of iGaming operators against the proposed license suspension temporarily enforced by ADM Customs and Monopolies Agency. This is great news for the operators.

A Small Victory

Thanks to Lazio TAR Administrative Court's stance, operators have earned provisional operating licenses that will last for a period of one year until October 2021 while iGaming companies try to break the legal stalemate that seems to only grow bitterer by the day.

According to the court, the casinos have been denied their license unfairly, irrespective of any reforms. The court has ordered the government to ensure that online gambling concessions are agreed upon before the upcoming Budget Law which will be signed in Parliament before 2020 is out.

Gaming Results Growing, Regulation Piling On

In the meantime, Italy continues to post impressive iGaming results. Online gambling revenue went up by 25.4% year-over-year in September and 2019's results improved significantly. Slot gratis on slotwin.it and online VLTs were the biggest contributors in the revenue increase

Meanwhile, a new turnover tax on sports betting has been introduced which hopes to add €90 million in fresh funds in a bid to revitalize sports, albeit the government has repeatedly failed to clarify how this would happen. We would just have to wait and see how it will all progress.

A little squeezed by the lockdown, Italy may turn to levy gambling with even heftier tax, even though the country is already facing some serious challenges. Hopefully this won't be the case.

Sports clubs in Italy will have to end all partnerships involving gambling operators moving forward, and find an alternative source of revenue instead. Last year we also saw the first year of operation of a blanket-ban focusing on suspending all advertising of gambling products. This can be both positive and negative and we will follow the evaluation closely when its presented.

While operators have remained upbeat about the Italian market, a forcible shutdown of their business would have been too much to swallow. With a rallying call met by almost all 30 operators in the country, iGaming businesses in the country will continue to operate until October.

We will follow up this story and try to keep our readers in the loop with the possible changes in the Italian regulated iGaming market. It's always hard to determine what will happen as different political parties have their own agendas but hopefully there won't be any drastic changes in the near future.