The Future of Europe

In the final part of our series looking at the future of the European online gaming market, Francesco Rodano, Head of Remote Gaming at AAMS Italy, looks at the role regulated markets will play. Rodano will be speaking at the EiG conference on the 19-21 October. Go to www.eigexpo.com for more info.

To what extent does the future of European poker depend on regulated markets?

Given what's happening around Europe, I'd say very, very much. The number of European countries working on the poker regulation is growing day after day. This, on one hand, will finally bring the online poker into the light of legality in all those jurisdictions, accelerating its popularity and even increasing the security for players. On the other hand, the spreading regulation could eventually lead to a cross border cooperation that will enhance the quality of the poker product even more (in terms, for instance, of better contrast to collusion and frauds).

To what extent is the non-regulated European poker sector in decline?

If the regulation is reasonable and works well, the regulated poker could eventually prevail on the non-regulated one. In Italy, despite the fact the only tournaments are allowed for now, the turnover grew from zero to 3,5 billion euros in just two years. And the large part of this money has been "dragged" from the off-shore sector. Citizen, when facing the choice between legal and illegal, seem to prefer a somehow lesser product in exchange of being safeguarded by the State in case of problems. This can also help the State to put in place tools that can help the responsible gaming. Non-regulated poker will continue to flourish where the game is banned, though, because the demand for it is really strong and it is fairly impossible to effectively block the Internet.

Are cross border networks between regulated markets a realistic proposition in Europe or will tax issues get in the way?

It's the right way to go, I believe. Because of the enormous advantages it could bring. Especially in terms of attractiveness of the game if compared to the non-regulated one: more liquidity means higher prize pools, and even gives everyone the possibility to learn from more skilled players from abroad. But also regulators could benefit from it, having a better control of the gaming operators and working in team to solve the problematic issues, like the money laundering and the above-mentioned frauds. Tax is not a major problem. In poker it is possible to calculate how much revenues for the operator are generated by every single player in every single hand or tournament (the affiliates make a living from this). Then it is just a matter of taxing those revenues according to that player's nationality and sharing the money between the states correspondingly.