Casino gambling is legal with a license from AAMS (Amministrazione Autonoma dei Monopoli di Stato), which has the power to issue casino licenses and online casinos licenses to companies. Casinos without a license can not operate and online casinos without a license are blocked. Currently there are around 35 casinos in Italy.

The online gambling licence covers the following games:

• skill games
• tournament and solitaire poker games
• cash poker games
• casino games
• fixed odd and totalisator sports, horse and other events betting
• horse pools
• bingo

The tax on online casinos is 24% of the gross profit and for online poker is 25%. The online casinos below accept players from Italy.

Bingo and online bingo are legal and are regulated by the AMD decree no. 29 from the year 2000. Bingo was actually invented in Italy. Therefore it is not surprising that the game is still very popular today. You can find numerous bingo halls throughout the country (hundreds of them, no official data, but there are definitely over a hundred of them, although most only have an Italian website, tourists don’t really visit these). Bingo websites are also eligible for a license, and both domestic and foreign companies can legally organize online bingo games with a license from the government. Bingo is considered a skill based game and not a game of chance (which is really dumb and also not true, but you know, its neither here nor there…) and therefore subject to 11% tax, and online bingo to 25% tax.

The online casinos below have live online bingo and accept players from Italy.

Poker and online poker are legal in Italy. The card game is considered a game of skill, not a game of chance in Italy. Poker was not invented in Italy, but baccarat possibly has been (not conclusively proven). Poker and online poker are subject to 25% taxation (25% of the prize pool). Online and offline poker both require a gambling license gambling from the AAMS. You can play poker outside of licensed casinos in private poker clubs, these are licensed card rooms. Playing poker at home is technically illegal, but just like everywhere else in the world this is not enforced and you won’t be arrested for a friendly game of poker with your friends, even if you bet with real money. Italian online poker networks are allowed to play and compete internationally, it’s not fenced off like the poker market of some EU countries.

The online poker sites below sites accept players from Italy.

Sports betting is legal and in its current form regulated by the Sports Betting Decree number 111, in effect since 2006 (except for virtual sports betting or fantasy football, which are not considered sports betting in Italy). Online sports betting is legal and regulated too since 2011. Bookmakers and online sportsbooks need to acquire a licence form the AAMS. Italy’s favorite sport is football, . and betting on football is a huge industry, with hundreds of bookmakers all throughout the country. Most of the biggest sports betting chains are already licensed and present in Italy with many betting shops and some of them have an online license as well (see below). Online sports betting is thriving as well, domestic and international companies can both get a sports betting license from the Italian government, actually it’s much easier to get a sports betting licence than a casino licence.

The sports betting tax is a very favourable 4.5% one of the lowest in Europe, this applies to online bookmakers as well. No wonder the sports betting industry is thriving in Italy! Compared to the 24% tax on casinos this nothing.

Horse racing betting is regulated separately by horse racing betting law no. 31. and tax is 43% of the gross gaming revenue for land based horse bets and 47% of the gross gaming revenue for online horse bets.

UPDATE: Due to COVID-19 and the detrimental effect this has on Italy’s sporting sector the sports betting tax for brick&mortar ad online bookmakers was lowered to an unbelievable 0.5% of total revenue to help support the sector during these difficult times. This will last util the end of 2021 unless extended.*

The online sportsbooks below accept registrations from Italy.

Lottery is legal and regulated by Lotteries Presedient Decree 1677 since 1948., the lotto is currently organized by Lottoitalia. The lotto is technically not a monopoly of SAZKA (the company behind Lottoitalia) but their license will not expire till 2025. The lottery, along with sport betting, was the first type of gambling allowed to be conducted online in 2011. The lottery’s website sells lottery tickets online and it has a mobile app as well. Italian residents can also purchase the tickets of other lotteries, including, but not limited to El Gordo – the Spanish lottery (which has even bigger jackpots), Euro Jackpot on the website. Lotteries, online lotteries and lottery agencies require a license from the Autonomous Administration of the State Monopolies to operate in Italy.

The second most popular lottery in Italy after the lotto is the SuperEnalotto (owned and operated by SISAL), which was first drawn in 1997. This is also not a monopoly and after the license of SISAL ends a new company might take it over in a concession. SuperEnalotto has one of the largest jackpots in the world, the biggest jackpot win so far is €177.7 million. And there are also other regional, smaller lotteries as well.

Apart from SuperEnalotto The following websites let people from Italy purchase lottery tickets online:

Italy does not regulate use of Bitcoin by individuals. As of now, there aren’t any specific laws in Italy concerning bitcoin gambling. Some speculated, that online casinos in Italy can not accept cryptocurrency because the use of electronic currency is restricted to banks and electronic money institutions*. However, online casinos do not process transactions, the transactions are handled by third-party payment processors. Therefore, bitcoin can be accepted by casinos and online gambling websites licensed in Italy. However, the government is very hostile to bitcoin because reportedly the Italian maffia uses bitcoin casinos to launder money (,which is a well known fact to everyone in the gambling industry, I have a segment about bitcoin casinos here, where I discuss this among many other things) and therefore none of the licensed casinos or online casinos accept any cryptocurrency.

The following Bitcoin casinos below accept players from Italy.