Jul
31st

Italian Poker Players Shuttled to Italian Version of PokerStars

Italian poker players were totally confused when they discovered that they could not play on the international version of PokerStars due to the changes in their country’s online gaming laws that went into effect early this week.

Since the middle of this decade Italian online gaming regulations have kept changing and in 2006 laws were passed that ordered Italian Internet Service Providers (ISPs) not to allow its citizens any access to the approximate 600 gaming outlets from outside the country. Thereafter Italians could only participate in state-run companies.

The Italian government dropped the partial ban after the European Union threatened fines and sanctions thus allowing open competition from online poker rooms, sports books and casinos from all over the world.

The European Union made a critical decision in February which resulted in many changes for Italian poker players and regulated where and how Italians can play poker online. Players are now also being restricted from participating if it is found that they have been playing too long and no cash games on the Italian-facing sites are allowed. These are amongst other regulations which were implemented on July 27th.

PokerStars have explained the changeover to their players stating that they have no choice in this matter as the new law states that offering real money online poker games to Italian residents can not be offered by sites that do not hold an AAMS license, like the PokerStars.it site.

Italian players are no longer able to play at PokerStars.com tables but can either transfer the assets to PokerStarts.it or alternatively convert their PokerStars.com account into a PokerStars.it account.

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