Online gambling in Italy: first months for Register of Self-exclusions (Rua)

Since last February, the Italian Single Register of Self-Exclusions (Rua) is active, through which a player can independently decide to add his name among those who can't enter games offered by licensed concessionaires, for a limited or even unlimited time.

This self-exclusion can directly be requested from the Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli (the Italian gaming regulator), as well as to a concessionaire where an account has previously been opened, and, in both cases, it is effective for all Italian concessionaires. Moreover, concessionaires also have the task, for each of their active customers, to send to the Register office of Gaming Accounts (Acg) the limits to daily, weekly or monthly charge amounts, which each player must set. The centralized Register office of Gaming Accounts (Acg) is the center of all initiatives for consumer protection, a complex Big Data system managed by Sogei - IT company owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance - which records all transactions on Italian gaming websites. Centralized Register Office is a resource unique in the world of online gaming. On one hand, it allows implementation of many of the consumer protection measures listed below, on the other hand it represents a valuable support for data-driven decisions by the Regulator. The Register Office records all transactions - up to 5 million per day during 2017 – taking place on legal websites and compares data of gaming account holders with the Tax Register. Each concessionaire must link their gaming systems with Sogei systems. Thanks to the connection, active 24/7, each player's identity is verified and irregular accounts are automatically blocked. To date, we have just over 8 million registered gaming accounts, distributed over 76 remote gaming concessionaires. In addition, concessionaires must send data to the central system of Aams about charges and withdrawals made by players, which allows, combining this information to those relating bets and winnings, to know the sequence of all the operations of every single account, for greater protection and guarantee of players. All players must set game limits on the monthly value of payments made to the gaming account. This measure is known as "self-limitation" and has the goal of promoting greater awareness among players as regards the balance between recreational gaming activity and private life. In practice, all players must enter a monthly or weekly limit to the amount deposited into the gaming account, effectively introducing an external control to their own activities and an important block to problem behavior. They are low-ball adjustable limits, with immediate effect, or upwards with effect starting from the seventh day following the request. Moreover, gaming platforms allow the players also to willingly fix daily spending limits or on single bets. Gaming systems of all concessionaires don't accept bets when these limits are overcome, centrally recorded on the Sogei's centralized Register office systems. All players can willingly block their gaming account for both defined periods or indefinitely. This measure is known as "self-exclusion" and is aimed at all those who find and want to limit their problem approach to gaming, not only in terms of excessive economic commitment, but also in terms of time. Player who notices he has a problem gaming behavior can access to the personal area of the gaming website and ask the concessionaire for self-exclusion with immediate effect from one or more games among those offered. The duration of the interruption can be temporary for a few weeks or indefinitely. In the event of total interruption, the player will no longer be able to make bets, while he can anyway withdraw the balance on the account. Self-exclusion is reversible upon written and explicit request of the player, not before a period of at least six months has passed from the first request. Also in this case, all requests are centrally recorded on Sogei's Register Office systems. In 2017 - according to data delivered by Politecnico of Milano -  about 56,000 players applied for the suspension of at least one of their gaming accounts, for a total of 107,000 requests. Closing requests of a gaming account were instead 46,000, made by about 35,000 unique players. From a survey by Italian research Institute Doxa on the players emerged that over 80% of the respondents are aware of Responsible Gaming subject and think that the information communicated about it are useful, and that just under half of respondents (46%) visited at least once the section of the website dedicated to the subject. In relation to the tools described, 62% of respondents knows they can limit the amount of charge, while only one in four respondent is aware of self-exclusion systems. Among the regulatory developments of 2018, the Single Register of self-exclusions (Rua) is being implemented by AdM. The measure was designed to further strengthen the self-exclusion mechanism, exploiting the potential offered by the Sogei's Register Office. The initiative will allow players requesting self-exclusion to automatically being excluded at the same time from all gaming websites. Actually, opening or using gaming accounts with other operators won't be allowed to players anymore. Self-exclusion will take place following a request sent to concessionaires or even officially to ADM.