Italy planning to ban online gambling

The country of Italy has received a lot of attention as a place of sport with last week’s Winter Olympic Games, well all sports except for poker.

The Italian government created legislation that makes it illegal for Italians to gamble on off-shore sites. The country’s ISPs are given a list of sites that it’s users are not allowed to go to, there are over 600 websites included on this list. Italy may the first of many countries in Europe to block offshore gambling sites, there have been other countries expressing interest in following suit with Italy.

The new ban has upset some people in Italy, they say that it goes against the Italian trade laws and that people should have the right to gamble their money online if they choose.

"All remote gambling operators in the RGA are licensed for gambling purposes within the European Economic Area. They adhere to high standards of regulation and social responsibility. There is no legitimate reason why they should not be allowed to provide their services to Italian residents," explained Clive Hawkswood, chief executive of the Remote Gambling Association.

The EU does have rules that state a county in the union can not infringe on foreign competition, that being said there is law that allows the Italian government to block online poker because of questionable values.

There have been a few international poker sites that have sent their feedback about the new to the Italian government, but as of now it does not look like the law will chance anytime soon.