Following Tuesday's announcement that Italy has officially legalized online skill games and certain types of poker, European gaming consultant Graham Wood explained to IGN further details of the law.
Article 38 of Law Decree 248/06, passed in June 2006, enables operators in Italy to offer games of skill, including certain variants of poker, to players within the country.
While the law sees online poker legalized, the games may only be played in tournament form and a 3 percent tax will be applied to each stake, Wood said.
Wood said the law also enables operators from EU Member States outside of Italy to operate in the country, but in order to do so they must obtain an Italian license. In addition, players from other countries may be able to access Italian gaming sites.
Meanwhile, the government, which initially released 17,000 licenses in December 2006, is expected to release more licenses at the end of this year.
The first Italian gaming sites are expected to go live by the end of 2007.
Emily Swoboda is the senior staff writer at IGamingNews. She lives in St. Louis, Mo.