Gambling on line - Made In Italy
Italians can gamble online, no problem. However, if new finance laws headed for the books in 2006 are approved, they'll only be allowed to do so on sites approved and licenced accordingly by the Italian state - and they'll all be Italian ones.
Usual Banana Republic nonsense, protectionism, blah, blah. However, of particular interest is the how - it'll be up to the ISP's. Incredibly, they will be required to block access to non-authorised sites, and if anyone gets through, the ISP will be fined. I know sod-all about this area, but you don't have to be directly involved to have your jaw on the floor.
Link to story (Italian only)
Link to a Word file from the European Betting Association - ' Draft Italian Finance Act 2006: test case for the European Commission.'
wow. that's some amazing
wow. that's some amazing action on behalf of the italian government. historically, italy has been known for creating heaps and heaps of mindless, stultifying bureacracy for everything possible (read "West With the Night" if you doubt me).
however, this move on gambling sites seems straight-up retarded. putting the burden on ISPs to block non-w.o.p. gambling sites can't be anything more than a reason for the italian government to shake down the ISPs for penalty dollars, can it?
p.s. i'm a guido myself, so i feel free to talk shit about my own people. salute!
Very little would surprise me...
Very little would surprise me when it came to a combination of Berlusconi and the Italian legal system.
However, given the problems that your neighbours to the north have had introducing (desperately-needed) heavy goods traffic regulation on their own, I would be extremely surprised if this did not fall foul of the anti-restraint-of-trade EU regulations and indeed, having read the Word doc linked to, it appears that this is what opponents are arguing...
I'm not sure I'm getting it
How will they handle Proxies and services like surf via AOL /$ ISP ?
International law is also a Q (If I gamble on an *international* site with an international CC - will someone stop me?).
Handing responsibility to the ISP is tricky, If I "break" a law in a rented office - is my landlord to blame?
...
it does read like the ISP will be given a list to block, not be responsible for finding every site themselves, so I guess it can be done
Whether it should be done is another question of course....