Italy gets fewer licence requests than expected

The gaming regulator had forecasted 120 iGaming applications to be submitted in 2018 but only got 80.

Italy.- The Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli (ADM), the gaming watchdog in Italy, expected to get around 120 applications for iGaming licences in 2018 but has only received 80 from 70 different companies. The application process is expected to be completed before Christmas but is 40 requests shorter than the regulator expected.

The ADM had launched the application process earlier this year, in January, way before the “Dignity Decree” got implemented, setting a major clampdown on gambling-related promotions and advertising. The procedure required companies to deposit a payment of €200k to get their applications processed before the deadline, set on March 20th.

“If those companies knew about the current advertising regulations, there will have been less than 10 requests probably,” a spokesman for Italian gambling affiliate Casino2k told iGamingBusiness.com and added: “No one would spend money for a product that cannot be promoted to potential customers.”

The spokesman also warned about the Dignity Decree’s impact on the local market. “If rules change so dramatically and so suddenly, no single company will be interested in investing millions of Euros in a fragile market,” he said and forecasted: “That’s what is going to happen here in Italy; companies will shut down operations, legal online gambling will disappear and we will come back to a non-regulated market as it was in the early 2000s.”