Online skill games, including certain variants of poker, are officially legal in Italy, as law 248/06 has finally received approval from the country's regulatory authority, the Autonoma dei Monopoli de Stato (AAMS).
The Law Decree, enacted in June 2006 by the Italian Council of Ministers, was aimed at cutting Italy's deficit by 11.2 euros. But a small section, Article 38, addressed the liberalization and deregulation of the country's gaming and betting industries and affected interactive P2P remote fixed-odds betting and real-money remote skill gaming. It also permitted businesses based in the European Union, European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and elsewhere to operate, provided they comply with the reliability requirements to be set by AAMS.
European gaming consultant Graham Wood told IGN in September that the law would clearly lay out where skill games, poker in particular, fit into the scheme of regulating online gambling, a relatively new territory for Italy.
Wood said that the law would enable operators to offer skill games such as draughts (aka checkers) and Sudoku but would prohibit them from offering casino games, as they contain no element of skill.
The law will allow operators to offer a range of poker games under very tight restrictions, Wood said. Poker tournaments are permitted, but only when all players pay an equal entrance fee. Players may not participate in individual online games.
Wood said in September that the government is considering allowing poker tournaments to be open to players from other EU Member States, but it would otherwise stay a purely Italian business.