Betting and gaming is a multi-billion business that has proved its resilience and capacity to rapidly adapt to regulation and the mobile era.
Notwithstanding its success, it is a sector that is facing formidable challenges such as:

• The integration of the online and the offline channels, given that the former has grown exponentially as an indispensable tool not only to reach customers but also to provide them with extra services’ added value and opportunities to interact with other games, entertainment and players through their mobile devices
• Uneven national legislation and regulation that forces international players to cherry pick their target markets looking at administrative procedures rather than or besides economics
• Taxation levels that are still unsustainably high in many jurisdictions, severely limiting the operational reach of gaming companies but at the same time ensuring that governments maintain control over revenue flows.

The legislation on betting and gaming is one of the areas in which there are significant moral, religious and cultural differences between Member States. Although Member States are free to set the objectives of their policy on betting and gaming and, where appropriate, define in detail the level of protection sought for their citizens, the restrictive measures that they impose must satisfy the conditions laid down in the case-law of the Court of Justice.

The resulting landscape and global outlook are complex and ever-changing and the business that is at stake is one of formidable size.

De Berti Jacchia Franchini Forlani is one of the few Italian law firms that has developed for two decades a very strong specialization and experience of betting and gaming not only in Italy, but also at the EU level and in other Member States.

OUR SERVICES

We provide betting and gaming operators with legal advice and services in all sectors and phases of their development and establishment, as well as assist them in litigation before all national and European regulators and jurisdictions (General Court, Court of Justice and European Court of Human Rights). Our expertise includes regulation, competition, public tenders, commercial contracts, data protection, tax and IP, and allows us to provide our clients with an unparalleled full service.

We regularly deal with all regulatory aspects falling within the competence of the Customs and Monopolies Agency and other administrations. We advise operators on licence applications and compliance in the betting, gaming and lottery sector, as well as public procurement procedures in all stages and phases.

We assisted and represented one of the truly leading European gaming and betting operators (in Italy as well as other European jurisdictions and at EU level) in the field of internal market and competition since 1999.