Home	Tutorial	Online Casino Reviews	Best Online Casinos	Casino Software	Casino News

Online Casino Gambling --- Casino News

Skill Gaming Defined

Poker is one of those areas of the online casino and land-based gambling industries that has created international debate. For the most part, internet poker players are adamant that poker is a game of skill. But on the other side of the coin, multiple governments have now ruled poker as a game primarily composed of chance. And though it may not seem like that pertinent of an issue to those outside of the online casinos gambling industry, it is in fact the very question that determines whether many governments will even allow online poker into the country. And in the coming weeks one more government will weigh in on the issue; the Italian government will sign into effect Article 38 of law 258/2006 – this Article contains all of the specifications on what counts as a skill game as well as taxation information pertinent to the online casino industry.

Late last year the Italian government legalized various forms on online casino gambling, internet betting, and more. The government had previously maintained a very strict anti-internet gambling point of view, but last year’s gambling related law legalized forms of internet gambling as well as creating a licensing and regulation program.

The new legislation means that online casino and internet betting sites now must obtain one of the country’s nearly 17,000 remote gaming licenses. The new law did not give carte blanche access though to the online casino industry. The licenses are for three main areas of internet gambling: sports betting, horse racing, and skill gaming. The skill gaming part of the licensing process though is tricky and has required additional clarification to determine what types of skill gaming are legal within Italy.

And though the government has taken time on deciding the list of legal skill games, it seems that poker has made the cut as a skill game and will be signed into effect with Article 38 as early as the end of September. Online casino poker does have some limitations, including no single player games, and each player entering a tournament must pay the equal amounts to participate.