It is a well-known fact that the revenue generated through online poker activities in Italy has been really problematic recently. It became clear that the pessimistic numbers that were previously reported remained the same in January. Actually, the situation became even worse.
In other words, a decline of 17% year-on-year has been reported.
As for the revenue generated in January 2015, the estimates show that the gross gaming revenue was €16.9 million. In comparison, the amount announced in January 2014 was €20.3 million.
The situation with the cash games revenue and the tournament play is not too optimistic as well. Exactly one year ago, the sum generated through cash games was €12.2 million. Overall, a decline of 25% was reported as the revenue generated during the previous period was estimated to be €9.1 million.
As for the tournaments, the decline was not particularly sharp, yet considerable enough. In January 2015, as much as €7.8 million was generated, while the sum in January 2014 was €8.1 million, which means that a decline of 4% was noticed.
As already mentioned, the situation with the poker activities is believed to be the most complicated. The revenue underwent a decline of 21% YOY to reach €187 million. As a matter of fact, this is half of the sum generated two years ago.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel, though. Although the game of poker is not expected to be revitalized anytime soon, the online casino industry is reporting impressive numbers. A growth of 9% was noticed YOY, while the expansion for January was 15%. Nevertheless all operators hope that the poker segment will have its revival and they are putting a lot of efforts into that purpose.
What is more, the sector is believed to be further expanded as prominent gambling operators have recently entered the Italian market. In addition, the government is taking imminent actions towards reducing the negative impact of the unlicensed providers.
Actually, the gambling operators available on the Italian market will have to comply with new rules and regulations within a few months. The Italian gambling regulators are believed to approve of a new law that would increase the taxes by 20%.
The new law will not affect cash poker but sports betting, poker tournaments and bingo will be supposed to comply with the soon-to-be-implemented changes.
