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This measure follows the coming into force of a law introducing criminal sanctions up to 3 years of imprisonment for the provision online or offline of gaming, betting and gambling activities to the benefit of Italian residents without an Italian gaming license. Indeed, Italian law prescribes that only providers (wherever located) holding an Italian gaming license issued by the Italian gaming authority can offer gaming and betting services to Italian residents.
However, this statutory obligation is difficult to implement in the online world since websites are accessible from any part of the world and Italian authorities are unable to prosecute companies located for instance in Gibilterre, BVI or any other far-reaching place. To this purpose, back in 2007 the Italian gaming authority obliged Italian access providers to implement filters blocking the access of Italian residents to a sort of black-list gaming websites i.e. a list of websites operating without an Italian gaming license which is continuously updated by the Italian gaming authority.
Italian authorities expect that following the coming into force of the abovementioned laws more and more gaming providers decide to abide with Italian gaming laws.
