The European Court of Justice (ECJ) issued yesterday its decision on the dispute between the Austrian gaming operator, Bwin, and the Portuguese gaming monopolist, Santa Casa de Misericòdia de Lisboa (Santa Casa). The dispute concerns Bwin’s sponsorship of the Portuguese professional football league which Santa Casa had challenged stating that the…

Italian newspapers report today the information about the potential acquisition by Bwin, the listed Austrian gambling company, of Gioco Digitale, one of the biggest Italian licensed gaming operators which has been recently active especially in the skill games sector. According to the press, Bwin will pay € 90-95m for 100% of…

After several years of disputes, the Italian Supreme Administrative Court (the "Consiglio di Stato ") has issued a preliminary ruling in favour of Stanley International ordering the reopening of Stanley's betting outlets in Italy. Indeed, since 1994 Stanley International has been running in Italy betting outlets involved in the…

The Italian gaming authority has sent to the EC Commission the draft decrees regulating (i) videolotteries and (ii) cash games and fixed odd games of chance . The EC Commission will have now a 90 days period to raise any relevant comment or request of amendments. Prior to expire of such term…

According to the press, Ca Vendramin Calergi , the company that manages the Venice Casino, has put on sale its stake in the Casino. Currently a Russian entrepreneur and a Greek company appear interested. It is not still clear at which stage the negotiations are. The Venice Casino had revenues of €…

The rules governing the gaming sector so far were an incredible amount of different rules which were never enough clear making the legal boundaries of the gaming sector sometimes uncertain. The recent coming into force of the so called Community Law 2008 made the playfield much more attractive for gaming operators. Through this law, the…

  It seems that the Italian Government has understood the enormous potentialities of the gaming market. Following the recent earthquake in the centre of Italy, as part of plan aimed at collecting funds for the rebuilding of the destroyed areas, it has been issued a decree empowering the Italian gaming authority to regulate, among others,…

  The Italian gaming authority (AAMS) has just issued the regulations governing the online bingo. The operators holding an offline bingo license will be merely required to go through an authorisation process which is subject to the fulfilment of some technical requirements and the provision of bank guarantees to obtain the right to offer online bingo…

The Times Online reports that Ladbrokes, the English bookmaker, has decided to put on sale its 170 Italian betting shops for an estimated £ 50 million. According to the Times Online, the main reason of this decision is that "the continued presence of illegal shops, increased competition and the withdrawal of the…

Life is becoming more and more difficult for gaming and gambling providers in Italy. Indeed, the Parliament has recently approved a law prescribing the implementation of an action plan against unlawful gaming especially in the online sector. This measure follows the coming into force of a law introducing criminal sanctions up to 3 years…