Recently the Italian government decided to implement a new gambling law, with stricter rules. One of the measurement was the removal of gambling related content on search engine machines such as Google. The billion dollar company has now decided to update the Italian gambling advertising policies.
Google is the first international giant for online gambling
It’s interesting to take a look at the new gambling policy of search engine Google. On July 16 is stated that ‘only state lotteries with deferred drawing will be allowed to run gambling advertisements in Italy.’ Google is actually the first international company to accept the new Italian gambling law. Experts believe that Facebook and Twitter might follow into the footsteps of Google soon.
The Dignity Decree
The new coalition government in Italy has implemented a new mandate known as the ‘Dignity Decree’. It’s quite strict for gambling companies, since the promotion gambling and betting companies is now restricted. For example, companies can no longer promote or advertise gambling on television and in search engines anymore. The sponsorship of sport clubs by gambling companies is banned as well.
Tough gambling advertisement rules
Italian Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio has written the mandate. He wants to protect the Italian people from the disadvantages of gambling, such as the risk of becoming addiction. The Italian government has implemented one of the toughest gambling advertisement codes in Europe. If a party breaches the gambling law, a minimum penalty of 50.000 euros awaits.
Attack on the new Italian gambling law
The so-called ‘Lega-5Star blanket ban’ comes into effect on the first day of 2019. Gambling stake holders like football firms, media owners and marketing agencies were really not happy with the decree. The Serie A governance said the following thing about the new decree.
‘It would cause competitive disadvantages to the Italian clubs and our teams advertising budget would be redirected abroad. In the 2017-18 season, twelve Serie A clubs have signed a partnership contract with companies of the betting industry, considered the 5th field for investments in the rank of the t-shirt sponsorship in the 6 main European tournaments.’
Transition period
Some media companies and sporting clubs attacked the law so much that the government had to change it a little bit. The coalition has given a transition period until 30 June 2019, so that some companies have enough time to change their policies. For example, existing contracts were already signed before the Italian assembly approved the decree. Because of the transition period, companies lose less money.
Battle from gambling stakeholders
The transition period doesn’t mean that the gambling stakeholder and betting incumbents will end their fight against the Italian government. They’re planning legal steps against the Lega-5Star Dignity Decree, and are even willing to go the European court.
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