The text of the implementing decree for the reorganization of online gaming provided for by the enabling act for tax reform is almost ready; it was expected in the Council of Ministers in today's session of November, the 16th, but its examination has been postponed, given that there are further and important changes to the text to be made.
The decree, read by GiocoNews.it, contains "the reorganization, also through their systematic and organic collection, of the general provisions applied to public games admitted in Italy and, in particular, of those relating to remote games".
As regards physical gaming, the relevant provisions will be "contained in a subsequent legislative decree, issued after the definition of a specific programmatic agreement in this regard between the State, Regions and local authorities".
In this regard, it is then clarified that when the regulatory reorganization of physical gaming is started, "the overall one regarding taxation and revenue collections in the public gaming sector will also be taken care of, without prejudice to the provisions of article 5, paragraph. Until then, there is nothing new in terms of taxation and levies relating to the remote gaming collection sector”.
In the text, a large chapter is dedicated to the announcement for online gaming. As previously mentioned, the cost of each license will be "of seven million euros for each concession requested, without prejudice to the maximum numerical limit of five concessions that can be requested by a single corporate group".
Concessionaires will be able to "activate on their website, prior authorization from the Agency and subject to the specific technical rules that it establishes, only one App for each of the games covered by the concession".
Chapter II of the decree is dedicated to the telematic network and charge card sales points.
“The Agency establishes and maintains the register for the registration, exclusively by electronic means, of the owners of ordinary or special shops of monopoly products authorized to collect public games, as well as of the subjects who carry out the activities of charge card sales points, with an authorization pursuant to articles 86 or 88 of the Tulps, authorized, by virtue of specific contractual agreements signed with the concessionaires, without exclusive licensing constraint, to carry out the aforementioned activities, upon payment of the fee for the charge card sales point.
Registration in the register is subject to the prior payment to the Agency of an annual amount of two hundred euros for the first year and one hundred and fifty euros for each of the following years. Failure to pay even just one year of the aforementioned amount will certainly lead to the loss of registration in the register.
Registration in the register is a requirement and necessary and essential condition for carrying out the activity of a charge card point of sale, with the express exclusion of any withdrawal of the sums lying in the gaming account and the payment of winnings. The activity of the charge cards sales point cannot be carried out without the posting, outside the business and in a visible position, of a sign or plaque specifically recognizing and identifying the aforementioned activity, the characteristics and dimensions of which are established by decree of the Director of the Agency.”
The text of the decree then talks about player protection. An enduring council of public games admitted in Italy is therefore established "without new or greater charges on public finances, with the aim of monitoring the progress of gaming activities, including illegal and unauthorized ones, and their effects on health of players, as well as to propose to the Government measures and interventions with the aim of fighting the development of gambling addiction. The regulation, adopted in agreement with the Minister of Health, regulates the organization and functioning of the Council, the number of its members, their designation as representatives of Government, Regions, local authorities, concessionaires, as well as the national trade and consumer associations".
Furthermore, further tools are provided for self-limitation to gaming, limitations for gaming accounts, activation of contact channels available to players for the disclosure of responsible gaming and procedures for monitoring risk levels, and "tools suitable to allow the concessionaire, in compliance with the legislation on the protection of personal data, greater control over the degree of participation in the game of the players most exposed to the risk of pathological gaming".
Furthermore, concessionaires will have to annually invest "an amount of 0.2 percent of their net revenues, in any case not exceeding €1,000,000 per year, in information campaigns or in responsible communication initiatives on topics annually established by a government commission”.
As regards the fight against the offer of remote gaming without concession, "IT measures are envisaged, also involving the use of artificial intelligence solutions" pre-arranged "for the identification of IT websites, to which access can be blocked, or not legal remote gaming offer, as they do not refer to the concessionaires selected pursuant to article 6".
Furthermore, "to network service providers, internet connectivity providers, operators of other electronic or telecommunications networks or operators who in relation to them provide electronic or telecommunications services, as well as payment service providers who violate the obligation imposed by the Agency to block the use of the networks which they manage or in relation to which they provide services, an administrative sanction of between €30,000 and €180,000 is applied, without prejudice to any criminal liability, for each confirmed violation".
Finally, "by December, the 31st of each year, the Minister of Economy and Finance sends to the presidents of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Republic a report on the public gaming sector containing, among other things, data on progress in the field of player protection and legality, on the state of development of concessions and related collection networks, on collection volumes, on the economic results of the management of the gaming sector".
THE ILLUSTRATIVE REPORT - In the illustrative report attached to the implementing decree on the reorganization, however, it is highlighted that "the tenders for the awarding of concessions for gaming collection in physical networks were not announced due to the uncertainty of which are the physical places in which it is allowed to open a physical gaming point, without incurring the impediment limits introduced by regional laws and above all by changing municipal regulations".
Then, it is underlined that the delegated decree is "aimed at assuring the evolution of remote collection networks for public games, assuring the transition from the current context, which has its roots in 2009 and which already at the time represented an innovative challenge and it has certainly constituted a lever to fight illegality, strengthening the public gaming proposal to attract demand on legitimate channels, to a new model that preserves the aforementioned roots by introducing new elements aimed at making the remote gaming offer even safer and ethics".
It is worthy mentioning, we read in the report, article 20 of the delegated decree, "aimed at ensuring the preservation over time of the public heritage values, consisting of the assets granting remote gaming, as well as the improvement of service levels in the field of public gaming. It is correlatively expected that, in cases in which the offer of remote public games indicates (a highly remote case, however) a loss of collection and tax revenue of no less than five percent, over a two-year period, changes in the return of winnings and stakes are permitted with specific regulation, in relation to individual remote games, as well as in the levy measures directly proportional to the decrease in the collection of tax revenue, in any case not exceeding the absolute value of the verified percentage decrease".