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OUT-LAW.COM reports that Mr. Kaplan, the founder of BetOnSports.com, has been jailed for four years in the United States since Internet gambling is there illegal under local laws and Kaplan and his company were offering their games to US residents through the Internet, even if the company was based in Costa Rica.
This news raises the interesting issue concerning the offer through the Internet of games by operators based abroad that do not hold a local gaming license. Indeed, Italian criminal laws require that the offer of games to players located in Italy is allowed only to operators holding an Italian gaming license i.e. even if an operator is licensed for instance in the UK or in Austria cannot offer its games to Italian residents, unless it holds an Italian gaming licence.
However, Italian authorities have faced relevant difficulties in forcing operators to comply with such obligations because of the relevant issues in enforcing orders abroad especially in tax heavens where most of such operators are based. Consequently, the criminal sanctions prescribed by Italian gaming law for the breach of the abovementioned prohibitions have been very rarely enforced.
To sort this issue, the Italian gaming authority obliged in 2007 Internet service providers to implement filters which blocked the access by players located in Italy to websites run by non-licensed operators that are listed a monthly basis on the website of the Italian gaming authority.
This measure however has ended up not to be very effective since non-licensed operators frequently change the web address of their websites and allow the access from players to their websites through affiliate websites.
The current scenario therefore risks to damage the investments of licensed operators that are consequently putting pressure on the Italian gaming authority to foster the setting up of more effective measures.
What will these measures be? the blocking of IP addresses of gaming servers, the blocking of financial transactions, the impossibility for non-licensed operators which acted in breach of local gaming laws to apply for a gaming license?
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