Italy’s gambling advertising ban gets ready

Last updated Sep 30, 2019

Local regulator AGCOM has set out how it plans to enforce Italy’s gambling advertising ban.

The country’s advertising and communications regulator Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni (AGCOM) decided on Italy’s gambling advertising ban. The body has set out the final plans to enforce it after lawmakers approved the new regulations back in 2018.

Direct and indirect advertising, sponsorship or promotional communications will all be banned, AGCOM stated. Furthermore, it banned traditional advertising, commercial communications such as product placement, distribution of branded items, advertorials and influencer marketing.

Nonetheless, other types of company-customer communications won’t fall under new rules. Informative communications such as sporting odds, jackpots, odds of winning a game, bonuses available and minimum bet sizes are allowed.

Last year, the Italian Parliament passed a proposal that bans all gambling-related advertising and sports sponsorships starting next year. With 155 voted in favour, 125 against and one abstained, the Senate approved the Dignity Degree, paving the way for new regulations in the country.

Italy’s gambling advertising ban applies to gambling products and services advertised on the internet, radio and television. Furthermore, it stops clubs from obtaining gambling sponsors. The only operators exempt from the ban are the state-run national lottery and its products.

Ever since Labour Minister Luigi Di Maio started his position, he manifested his stance against gambling and said that the new regulations are set to financially cover the new national plan on gambling. “We could no longer allow citizens to be encouraged to gamble, a vice that increasingly degenerates into a real disease: in Italy, there are a million people at risk, including many children,” said Di Malo after the Senate approved the Decree.

“I consider this rule an act of civilization that is implemented for the first time in the European Union. Finally, a record to be proud of,” he added.