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The Italian Gaming Authority has launched the call for tenders on the so called “instant lotteries“. Instant lotteries include “paper scratch cards” that can now be purchased in almost any tabacco shop in Italy (even though they can be sold also abroad) and “online scratch cards” which are accessible on the websites of any licensees. Players scartching the paper or the online scratch cards can win hundreds of thousand of Euros. 
The call for tenders is open to all the companies which:
- during the period 2006-2008 have reached a turnover equal to at least € 150,000,000 in the gaming sector. However, if the company has been established less than 3 years before the call for tenders its financial soundness shall be proved also merely through declarations from at least two banks;
- collected funds from players (i.e. through buy-in, bets, the price of scratch cards) during each of the last 3 financial years equal to at least € 500,000,000 in connection with games performed through gaming terminals;
- managed during year 2008 at least 3,000 points of provision of services (e.g. betting shops, betting agencies, ATM machines etc.). However, please note that the conditions of the call for tenders (i) do not require that these points of provision of services are located in Italy and therefore also large foreign gaming operators can satisfy this requirement; and (ii) do not require that the applicant owns such points of provision of services or that such points of provisions of services are controlled by same; indeed this requirement is only necessary to prove the management skills of the applicant.
It might be relevant for foreign operators to note that the requirements listed above can be met also through affiliated companies and therefore the applicant might also be a newco established only to participate to the call for tenders. Also, applicants can participate to the call for tenders through a temporary group of enterprises (in Italian “raggruppamento temporaneo di imprese“) where the abovementioned requirements might be jointly met by the companies part of the group.
The licenses will be assigned assigning specific marks to the value of bid, the technical project of network of sales point and the technical project relating to the safety and reliability of the scratch cards.
The deadline for the placing of the bids is 12 October 2009 at 4 pm and therefore any interested operator shall act expeditiously.
