Italian Online Casinos

Italians enjoy one of the most liberal gambling markets in the world, and
have a huge range of options available to them, including the opportunity to
wager at Italian online casinos. Gambling is so much part of the national psyche
that a staggering EUR 42 billion was wagered on gambling in 2007 – equal to 2%
of the country’s GDP!

Gambling in Italy

Italians have always had gambling options available to them, despite the fact
that this largely Catholic country viewed the pastime with negative
connotations. It is only in the past four decades or so that Italian gambling
has become a powerful industry in its own right, offering citizens the chance to
enjoy top quality entertainment.  The most popular forms of gambling in
Italy are undoubtedly sports betting and lottery games, although the growth of
popularity in land based casinos is also noteworthy, especially in the past few
years.

Popular Italian casino destinations include Casino de la Vallee in Saint
Vincent and the Casino di Venezia, which was established in 1638 and is
considered the oldest operating casino in the world!

Online Gambling in Italy

When online gambling first hit the scene, the Italian
government, as with so many others, did not quite know how to handle the issue,
and decided to go for an all out ban. However, to its credit, the government
quickly understood that there was no stopping Italian online casinos and decided
if they couldn’t “beat ‘em”, they’d “join ‘em”.  As such, in 2007, the
government declared its Decree on Liberation and opened up the market to declare
online gambling a legal pastime in Italy.

Thousands of operating licenses have been issued by the Italian
government and Italians have one of the biggest choices of gambling options
available to them on the continent.  Italian online casinos offer gameplay
in Italian, allow players to pay in Euros, and support a wide number of
Italian-friendly payment methods, including credit and debit cards, Moneybookers
and Neteller.