Video Lottery Terminals in Italy
The gaming industry in Italy has seen profits soar over the last 5-6 years, with the introduction of new regulations aimed at expanding betting opportunities for Italian gamblers. With more than €8bn generated in tax revenues every year from a total gaming turnover of nearly €50bn, it is little surprise that the government is becoming increasingly reliant on this sector to provide money for otherwise depleted state coffers.
Further to the tremendous success achieved by the introduction of State-monitored street-AWPs and a pioneering licensing regime for online operators, Video Lottery Terminals are the latest category of products to emerge as an opportunity in the Italian market. Alas, not without a healthy deal of Italian drama.
The system to date has resulted in 10 subjects that were able to acquire government concessions to provide connectivity between AWPs and the central monitoring system of the State Monopolies, turning into game operators by sourcing (mostly foreign) technology for the running of their new VLT estate. Not surprisingly, this has most traditional small operators running around screaming Mamma mia!
With most of the platforms currently being verified by the technology arm of the Italian regulator, SOGEI, Phase I of the project is well under way. At the beginning of spring 2010 some of those systems will receive authorization to be deployed in dedicated gaming halls, however, what effects will this have on the Italian market?
