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As part of a draft law decree aimed at pushing the development of the tourism sector, the Italian Ministry of the Tourism, Ms. Brambilla has filed a proposal allowing the opening of casinos in all the Italian 5 stars hotels.
Presently casinos can be found located in Italy only in Venice, Sanremo, Saint Vincent and Campione d’Italia. Italian criminal laws prohibit the opening of any other casino. On the contrary, if the proposal drafted by Ms. Brambilla is approved, there could be 26 casinos just in the city of Rome.
On one hand this is a very good news for gaming operators since as a consequence of the number of games that are expected to be launched in the next months and of this new law proposal (if approved), Italy might become a very attractive target.
On the other hand though this new measure appears to show a shift from the past position of the Italian Government. It would seem that they are paying more attention to the substantial tax proceeds deriving from the gaming sector than to the reasons of public interest and consequently of protection of citizens which were used by Italian and European courts to justify the restricted gaming license system which requires operators licensed in other EU Member States to obtain an Italian gaming license prior to the offering of their games to Italian residents despite of the EU principle of freedom to provide services.
Indeed, if Italian authorities are apparently fostering the development of the gaming sector despite of the potential harms that Italian citizens might suffer, why is an English licensed gaming website obliged to obtain an Italian license to offer its games to Italian residents? Is the exception to the applicability of the EU principle of freedom to provide services still justified? To me the reasons of public interests seem to recently hide other less noble reasons.
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