Gambling in Italy has – traditionally – been illegal in most forms, but the government has started to take a more liberal approach over the last decade.
Pressure from the EU, and changes in how the Italian people view gambling has seen things change, and today, the Amministrazione Autonoma dei Monopoli di Stato (AAMS) is responsible for regulating gambling activities in Italy.
The AAMS can issue gambling licenses to operators and regulates all forms of gambling activities. In this post, we’re going to take a look at how the AAMS works, and how they regulate the online gambling industry.
About The Amministrazione Autonoma dei Monopoli di Stato
Online gambling in Italy began being legalized back in 2006, following the result of an investigation by the European Commission. A complaint had been made to the commission that the Italian government was preventing legitimate European gambling operators from offering their services to Italian players. At the time, only the Italian National Olympic Committee (CONI) and the National Horse Breeders Enhancement Society (UNIRE) were authorized to accept bets on, and offline. Any other websites were automatically blocked by Italian ISP’s, as directed by the Italian government.
The result of the investigation led the Italian government to bring in new gambling regulations in 2010, and these new laws allowed foreign online gambling operators to offer real money games to Italian players. All operators wishing to offer Italian players gambling services were required, by the new laws, to apply for a license through the AAMS, which is a government-operated body.
The AAMS issues licenses for a number of gambling activities, including skill games, tournament and solitaire poker games, cash poker games, casino games, fixed odd and totalisator spots (and other events betting), horse pools, and bingo.
There are a number of requirements that potential license holders must meet in order to be awarded a licenses, and we’ll look at some of the conditions below.
License Requirements
Operators wanting to receive a license from AAMS must meet a number of criteria. First of all, operators must be licensed and established within a European Economic Area (EEA) state. They must also have a permanent link-up with the AAMS’ centralized system for compliance, so licensees can be monitored at all times.
Companies who want to offer services to Italian players are required to pay Italy’s 27.5% corporate income tax rate, and online gambling companies must also pay a regional tax, which varies between 2.98% and 4.82%, depending on which Italian region they were established in.
To acquire a license, operators must also:
- Run their games from Europe, and have a turnover of at least EUR 1,500,00 within the last 2 years
- Function at a high technical level, providing players with stable, secure, and easy-to-use services
- Be founded as a capital society
- Have a number of reliable administration members
- Base itself, and its official residence and technical support portal in a European country
- Pay EUR 350,000 to the AAMS, to cover technical management, administration and supervision
Like most regulators, the AAMS also requires license holders to carry out checks on players, to ensure they’re above the age of 18. The AAMS is also limited to the number of licenses it can issue, and this is currently 200.
However, in 2015, the Italian government started looking at increasing the number of licensers the AAMS could issue, in order to compete with the growing number of illegal sports betting operations offering services to Italians.
Top AAMS Licensed Casinos
There are now a wide variety of online gambling operators who are licensed by the AAMS, and you can view some of the top Italian licensed casinos below:
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How To Check If a License is Valid
All online gambling operators who have an AAMS license must display so on their website. This is usually shown in their footer area. Unlike other gambling regulators, the AAMS do not require that operators link directly to a license page, but you can check on the AAMS website whether a site is licensed or not.
AAMS Complaints Procedure
It’s not clear exactly what the complaints procedure is for the AAMS, but as is almost always the case, any complaints should first be taken up with the online gambling site in question. If this proves unsuccessful, players are advised to use the casino’s designated ADR (alternative dispute resolution) service.
If the ADR makes a decision you’re unhappy with, you can then contact the AAMS directly, although whether they will look into your complaint or not remains to be seen.
Contact The AAMS
Address: Agenzia delle Dogane e Dei Monopoli, Via Mario Carucci 71, Rome, Lazio, Italy 00143
Phone: +39 8002 172 13
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://www.adm.gov.it/portale