Italy’s AAMS list of blocked gambling domains grows

Most governments that introduce online gambling regulations will that claim the decision is driven by player protection considerations. Lets face it though, the real motivation is invariably the need to raise revenue.

It’s no coincidence that politicians’ calls for regulation get louder and more common during tough economic times where budgets are deeply in the red.  In the face of mounting debts and rather precarious economic situations a number of EU members have recently capitulated to European Commission pressure to open and regulates their net-gambling markets.  Greece, Spain and Italy are all at various stages doing so, and all are also at various degrees of near-bankruptcy.

Raising gambling taxes 101

In order to maximize tax revenues from a regulatory regime you have to block operators not subject to your regulations and taxes.  If you do not, then:

1. players will have too many other playing options rather than being forced to use locally licensed operators; and
2. operators will be discouraged from applying for a license and incurring the additional operating costs (taxes, probity requirements etc)  if they are still going to have to compete with unlicensed operators.

Recently France’s regulator ARJEL gave notice to a number of operators saying they should cease accepting French players.

Also recently, Italy’s AAMS extended the list of online gambling domains that it is seeking to block Italian residents from being able to access.

AAMS blocked list of blocked gambling domains updated June 2011

It’s a very long list…3,000+ domains and sub-domains including a who’s who of the European I-gaming industry. The full list can be found at the AAMS website here.  A few domains I spied on a quick review of the list included:

• bet365.com
• ladbrokes.com
• paddypower.com
• williamhill.com
• 888.com
• unibet.com
• casinotropez.com
• unibet.com
• sportingbet.com
• betsson.com
• betfair.com
• bwin.com
• titancasino.com
• 21nova.com

Looks like they’re going with the old ‘if in doubt…add it to the list‘ approach.  I say that because a number of these sites are running live casino games that have actually been certified by the AAMS so in theory should be available to Italian players at some point in time via some of these operators.

Another point worth noting…it seems that from a technical point of view the AAMS isn’t quite up to the task of effectively implementing the blocks.   A new domain here and sneaky redirect there, and operators are able to easily circumvent the measures I’ told.