Warning Signs from America to Europe: Risk of Paralysis Due to Transactions with Authorized Gaming Operators
Blank Rome Partner Dennis M.P. Ehling, who serves as co-chair of the Firm’s Gaming & Entertainment practice, was quoted in Agimeg, an Italian gaming news publication, on October 31, 2019. The article explores the proposal by the Italian government to implement restrictions on the use of various online payment mechanisms in Italy to support online gambling at websites not properly registered with and licensed by the Italian government. The proposal is similar to the U.S. federal Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (“UIGEA”) passed by Congress in 2006.
Dennis was interviewed regarding the impacts that UIGEA had on the legal and illegal online gambling markets in the United States, including how, even as legal state-licensed online gambling has expanded broadly in the United States over the last several years, legal operators are still experiencing decline rates nearing 50 percent when customers attempt to use their credit cards to fund their online gaming accounts, and how illegal operators have found other ways to move funds into the gaming accounts of customers playing on the unlicensed websites.
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