Italian online casinos for Real Money

Gambling has been legal in Italy since the days of Mussolini in the 1930s (a sad badge of honour for the fascist dictator). Land-based betting has been regulated since 1948 and today encompasses land-based casino games, slot machines, video lotto games, sports and horse race betting, pools, bingo, and lottery games.

After being unregulated (and falling outside of the country’s gambling laws), Italy decided to legalise online gambling in 2006, around the same time that the UK Gambling Commission made the same decision. In fact, the two countries have similar policies when it comes to the regulation of the industry, making them stand out from other, less well-regulated countries.

At present, Italy’s online gambling act has legalised sports and horse race betting, pools, online casino games, bingo, lottos, betting on exchanges, and virtual/live betting, such as on e-sports and casino games.

The nature of problem gambling and corruption in sports regularly causes a new discussion on the future of gambling in Italy. However, most Italians seem happy to rely on responsible gambling and problem gambling policies put in place by the gambling authorities. Land-based gambling is also a rich source of revenue for Italy, courtesy of its glorious and luxurious casinos. Gambling will remain legalised for a while to come.

According to Italian gambling law, the Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli (known as the Autonomous Administration of the State Monopolies) has jurisdiction to issue gambling licenses to companies and regulate the industry. Oddly enough, this is not as menacing as it sounds. Despite the word “monopoly” being involved, the Italian gambling sector is open to foreign actors and players. Precious few monopolies exist in the Italian betting scene.

The same licensing body also runs the rule over the online gambling sector. Any foreign operator is permitted to apply for an Italian gambling license. Indeed, the gambling body has been quite open and accommodating in handing them out. However, the authorities do crack down on any site which hasn’t obtained a gambling license by forcing ISPs (internet service providers) to block access to those sites.

In many EU countries, licensing bodies don’t cater to operators outside of their own country. This means that EU law comes into play and enables those bodies to offer their services to nationals without a national license.

That isn’t the case in Italy, though. Because Italy is open and invites any foreign site to claim a license, Italy is one of the few countries compliant with EU gambling laws. Therefore, this loophole for offshore operators doesn’t apply, and those operators are legally required to apply for a license to cater to Italians – no ifs, buts or maybes.

There isn’t much that Italians don’t like betting on. As detailed above, seemingly all major forms of gambling are legal in Italy, and there is a crowd that loves to play most of them. Perhaps most surprisingly, bingo is a major game in Italy. Italians often claim that they “created” bingo, and who are we to argue? There is no doubt that the popularity of the game ensures that it features prominently at most Italian-facing casinos.

If you are aged 18 or over, the gambling world is your oyster in Italy. Sports betting and casino games are prevalent everywhere, and the licensing authority does a top job of ensuring that all games are fair. There are a few software providers based out of Italy, including GammaStack, but most of the games you can play come from software providers in other countries.

That depends on what type of Italian casino we’re talking about. The Italian gambling authorities do not force Italian-licensed casinos to only cater to the local population, so you can theoretically play at those sites even if you don’t reside in Italy. However, you’ll need to speak Italian or have an Italy-based address if you want to clear the KYC process. Fortunately, most of these sites also have licenses issued elsewhere, so they run several domains, at least one of which will be playable in English.

Italian-facing sites (that are based offshore) generally accept players from many countries. Gameplay in Italian is possible at most of these sites, although there are always exceptions. Either way, Italians aren’t going to be short of options or places to play, whichever way they wish to gamble online.