Gambling has always been legal within the Italian borders. In fact, there are lots of trusted sources that gambling was popular amongst the Roman soldiers who were cantoned all over the Europe. They were playing a game called Ludus Duodecim Scriptorum, that was a primary form of the modern Backgammon game.
The first gambling hall was was opened in Venice in 1638. It wasn’t exactly a casino with free access (as the first European casino was built somewhere around 1750 in one of the German lands), but more of a house where rich people gathered and played biribi and bassetta on insanely high stakes (for that age).
Nowadays, gambling is legal. Up until 2003, the gambling industry was strictly regulated by a set of laws that proved to be illegal, at least from the perspective of the European Union. Since 2006, the online gambling industry has been continuously liberalizing. Although the online gambling sector is still regulated, foreign gambling operators are permitted to sustain any kind of gambling activities as long as they can comply to some 5 regulations:
· The turnover in revenue must be greater than 1,5 million Euro in 2 years;
· The foreign operators must develop platforms that are easy to use, secure and guarantee the safety of their clients’ information;
· The online casinos must be founded as capital societies;
· Must pay 350,000 per year to the AAMS agency for technical management and supervision;
· Must have the official residence within the EU borders;
As concerning the most popular games, they are the regular ones: poker, roulette, blackjack and so on. Here you can read more for the top casino games in Italy and also see what are the best online casinos that operate in Italy.