GameAccount gets go ahead from Italy on real money skill games
GameAccount has been cleared by Italian regulators to launch real money online skill gaming in Italy this month, chief Dermot Smurfit hailing the news a chance for "skill gaming to finally have its day in the sun."
GAMEACCOUNT has been cleared by Italian regulators to launch real money online skill gaming in Italy this month, chief Dermot Smurfit hailing the news a chance for “skill gaming to finally have its day in the sun.”
Speaking to EGRmagazine.com today, Smurfit, pictured, also predicted that France and the United States would follow Italy in legalizing online skill games.
Smurfit said: “Italy is the first regulated market which has decided skill games would be the most politically compatible product to launch, and it looks likely France, and in due course, the US, will also follow suit. We know there is also ongoing cooperation and discussion at a governmental level between the French and the Italian governments.”
As reported on EGRmagazine.com, GameAccount became the first Italian-licensed provider to offer freeplay and for prize skill games to the Italian market last September, and will be free to offer real money competitions from 25 August.
Smurfit said the launch of real-money tournaments represented the culmination of an “exhaustive process” that has taken more than two years. He continued: “There’s a massive barrier for entry. Other companies can look up and say, ‘Italy looks like it’s going to be a good market, quick, let’s move in there.’ The reality is that they can’t. It takes a huge amount of time to get authorised, regulated and live.”
Smurfit also revealed that a delegation of US legislators had visited Europe to gain a better understanding of how to set up regulated skill gaming environments.
GameAccount will wait for skill gaming legislation to pass at federal level before entering the US market, Smurfit said, which he cautioned could take “18 months to two years, if not longer.”
Senator Roberto Menendez last week unveiled his Internet Poker and Games of Skill Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act bill.
Smurfit added: “We made our position clear in the wake of the passage of the Unlawful Internet Enforcement Gambling Act [UIGEA] in 2006. It is arguable that every game of skill has an element of chance, which forces it to be captured by the act. We feel anyone who takes money from residents of the US and allows them to play games of skill is as much at risk as anybody offering real money poker into the US.”