By Alexis Russell

09/13/2008

          On September 5-7^th Italians were able to play online poker legally for the first time, though the window of opportunity was a brief few hours from 2-5pm.  But in those few hours the two poker site operators that have received licenses, Gioco Digitale and Microgame, found what they’d been hoping for.  The experimental test weekend was a sure success that has both the Italian government and gaming operators ready to move forward.

            During the test weekend Microgaming and Gioco Digitale tracked their site’s traffic numbers.  During the 870 games that Microgaming offered approximately 1500 players turned out and Gioco Digitale had 5000 user register and play in the 1,204 tournaments that took place in their poker room.  These kind of numbers were encouraging enough for the Italian government to agree to extend the playing hours from just 2-5pm to 8am-8pm.

            Eventually online poker and other gambling skill games will be available 24/7, but there are other stipulations.  The Italian government has set limitations on what gaming operators can charge for buy-in fees.  They’ve set the minimum tournament buy-in at .50 Euros and the maximum at 100 Euros.  Of the total the house receives in entry fees 80% is required to go to the player prize pool.  

            But the poker players aren’t the only ones seeing some of the money being generated in the online poker rooms.  The Italian Finance Ministry has said they expect to make an estimated 400 million Euros overall from online poker and other games in the first year alone.  The treasury will be seeing 3% of that right off the top.

            After numbers further swelled during the increased playing hours, with Gioco Digitale getting 6000 players registered on September 9^th the first day of the extended playing time, it seems online poker is set to stay in Italy.  More gaming operators including Ladbrokes, PartyGaming and 888 are currently appealing for licenses so they too can become a part of the burgeoning Italian online poker community.