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According to information released by the state regulator in Italy, LAmministrazione Autonoma dei Monopoli di Stato (AAMS), online poker playing has significantly decreased in the past year. The AAMS releases an annual report to notify people in the gaming industry what is going on. The report shows that since the beginning of 2012, revenue from online poker playing has fallen at least 43 percent. The revenue that was once $41 million dove to just $23 million which is a major decrease in revenue in the industry.
Not only has online poker seen a significant decline but revenue from poker tournaments has also taken a steady fall. Last year’s annual revenue at the start of the year showed that revenue was $35.3 million. By August of 2012, the revenue dove by a whopping 75 percent in to $9.1 million from poker tournaments.
Just over a year and a half ago, cash games online did give Italy a slight boost because of the marketing of online poker. However, the poker industry in Italy is still flailing as the total loss in poker revenue in all other areas has completely spiraled well beyond the usual annual income. Real money games have significantly decreased and interest is simply not there like it has been in the past. However, lack of interest is not the pinpoint for this plummeting industry. Many other factors have played a significant role in the steady decline of poker playing in Italy.
One of the key reasons that poker revenue has undergone a drastic loss is because of a high level of gaming tax. When compared to other countries in Europe, Italy has the highest tax levy. Because of this, entertainment in Italy is significantly more expensive than in other areas of the world. Players of all skill levels are putting off spending their money. Casual and recreational players are not playing online poker games as much but professional players in Italy no longer see it as a way to make a living in Italy.
Another problem is low player liquidity. For poker players who do spend the money on online poker tournaments, they find that the prize pools are significantly smaller. For Italian online poker, it is restricted to people who live in Italy only. Since these games are only open to Italian citizens, this means that there are less players, less options of tournaments to play in, less variation in the types of games to play and less money to be won. This is a major put off to people who are serious players and those who play just for entertainment value. The players see no reason to invest.
In the future, the AAMS has been trying to reach negotiations with Spain and France in order to include more people into the player pool. At this point, the AAMS has only been faced with the fact that this may not be likely. Italy will have to come up with other game plans in order to turn their poker gambling industry around.