Collision course

In a new and aggressive move, Italy slaps an e-ban on the Malta gaming authority website, reports the Online-Casinos news site:

The Italian authorities made the headlines in Maltese media this week with a new aggressive move aimed at blocking Italian players from Internet gaming activities. For some months now (see previous Online-Casinos.com & InfoPowa reports) a war of words has been going on after the Italians arbitrarily enacted a blockade of 684 internet gaming sites back in February. 68 of the sites were licensed by the Malta Lotteries and Gaming Authority. In a bid to bypass the blockade, the LGA linked its website to all the Maltese gaming sites using a web anonymiser that disguises the websites’ IP addresses.

Now the Italians have upped the ante by blacking out the Lotteries and Gaming Authority’s official website – the last remaining link to Italian gaming sites registered in Malta. The LGA website is now no longer accessible from Italian territory, after Italy’s state administration for monopolies, the AAMS, warned the site had no authorisation to collect bets and blocked it from Italian ISPs..

LGA chief executive Mario Galea, who at the time was in Italy addressing the European Forum of Gaming Regulators, made a strong statement criticising the Italian action to delegates: “We cannot accept that the good, the bad and the ugly are thrown in the same basket. Malta’s websites are regulated by the official Maltese authority,” Galea said. The blockade action started when the Italian government blocked all foreign gaming sites from the UK to Malta, claiming it was protecting Italian gamers from “phishing” – the fraudulent acquisition of passwords and credit card details..

Malta is awaiting a response from the European Commission on it's investigations into whether infringement procedures should be commenced against Italy. The European Commission has apparently requested information from the Italians on the restrictions imposed on online betting and gaming and the justification for these.

Lotteries and Gaming Authority website; Italy blocks Maltese internet gaming sites, by Matthew Vella.