The other day after having lost the tenth online auction because of the Internet connection speed of my smartphone, I started thinking about mobile gaming, mobile payments and how difficult is still to purchase an item on an e-commerce website using a smartphone. Despite the considerable increase of the number of smartphones in Italy (we…

eGaming Review has defined - in a recent  report  - the Italian market "huge". Indeed - according to the report - the Italian market is expected to become by the end of 2009 the largest European gaming market generating a turnover of € 18.7 bn. Also, these figures are likely to considerably increase in the next years taking into account that the percentage of…

I had discussed in a previous post about the draft law decree filed by Ms. Brambilla, the Italian Ministry of the Tourism, allowing the opening of casinos in all the Italian five stars hotels. This law proposal have been highly criticized also because according to the press it would have led to very…

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…

Playbonuscasino.com reports that Italian casinos and foreign casinos located close to Italian borders fear the negative consequences that might potentially derive from the launch of  Videolottery casinos.  As already discussed , the setting up of gaming halls dedicated to Videlotteries (VLTs) (the so called "VLT casinos") is expected to lead to considerable changes in the…

Spanish gaming news.com reports that the privatization of State managed lotteries and betting in Spain is now closer. This means that the Spain might shortly become a new target for gaming operators that have seen in few years first the opening up of the Italian gaming market and will be shortly see the end of…

The coming into force of the rules governing class actions in Italy has been postponed several times, but finally such regulations  - as amended by Law 23 July 2009 No. 99 - will come into force on 1 January 2010.  This is a considerable change that however will have limited effects since it will be…

After the issue of the new rules governing online bingo , the Italian gaming authority has also set new rules for offline bingo prescribing that:  the applicable taxes will be equal to 11% (previously 20%) of the sale price of bingo cards; and that the amount due to the centralized gaming controller will be 1% (previously up…