Report: Italian Online Poker Market Heats Up

From today’s CAP Newswire:

Growing popularity of Internet poker nets 350 million Euros each year in Italian market

August 26, 2008 (InfoPowa News) — Online poker is a pastime rapidly gaining ground among Italian gamblers, it seems, from a survey conducted recently by the Consumers Defense and Orientation Association (ADOC) and reported this week by the Agipronews agency. The survey found that Italians punters annually spend an average of Euros 600 each on Internet gambling, making a total yearly spend of Euros 350 million.

Almost 2 million Italian residents have gone online at least once to play a game of chance on the Internet, with a quarter of that number using offshore Internet gambling sites for this activity. With the Italian government poised to legalise, license, and regulate online gambling, the survey will be read with interest by many involved in the industry.

Gambling information bureau Agipronews commented in a statement that the online gaming phenomenon increasingly appeals to Italian people, with visits to foreign gambling sites up 25 percent. According to ADOC, 16,000 Italian citizens ‘may be considered’ to have gambling problems with an average level of debt that ranges between Euros 10,000 and Euros 12,000, in exceptional cases reaching Euros 40,000.