Italian media hold the balance and must be fair on gambling advertising

Italy’s self-regulated media hold the balance of power in terms of how much gambling advertising gets aired on Italian TV, but networks tightening up on advertising by licensed dot it operators hints at broader pressures, writes Italian gaming law expert Valerie Peano.  

Italy’s Budget Law 2016 has amended the legal framework governing gambling advertising in Italy as previously introduced by Health Minister Balduzzi in 2012.

The aim of the law is to improve the level of protection of consumers against social and economic harm that may result from compulsive or excessive gambling, prevent minors from playing, safeguard health and contrast illegal gambling offer.

Since 2012 the Budget Law forbids any gambling advertising message that incites gambling and that does not contain warnings on gambling addiction and notices concerning winning probabilities. According to the same law, the Italian gambling regulator is entitled to sanction any non-compliant operator.

As of now, the Budget law provisions refer to the principles set out in the European Commission Recommendation no. 2014/478/CE issued on 14 July 2014 on online gambling services to introduce:

• A general prohibition of gambling advertising from 7am to 10pm during “generalist” TV and Radio programmes. No exclusion of the prohibition in case of sports and international events is set forth but a clear definition of “general programme” is missing – leading to different interpretations until the implementing decree listing the “specialised” media channels excluded from this prohibition will be issued;
• The compliance to specific principles deriving from, but not identical to, the Self-regulatory Institute of Advertising – Istituto di Autodisciplina Pubblicitaria (IAP), to which most of the media companies active in Italy are signatories. Such principles specify, for example, that gambling advertising shall be prohibited when it encourages excessive or uncontrolled gaming, when it denies gambling can be risky, when it fails to make explicit terms and conditions to receive any incentives or bonuses, etc.

Any infringement to the above will be punished with a financial sanction of up to €500,000. The Telecoms Authority, rather than the gambling regulator, would inflict this sanction to both the advertiser, the publisher and the owner of the advertising channel.

However, notwithstanding the new provisions of the law, with regard to gambling advertising, the Self-regulatory Institute of Advertising (IAP) holds the balance of power on gambling advertising in Italy and in practice dictates the conditions to the gambling operators wishing to advertise.

Recent judgments have seen the IAP stop William Hill, Eurobet and Betsson from airing TV adverts for being not compliant with its code. Especially in the William Hill judgment, the IAP challenged the bonus message, asking for terms and conditions of the promotion to be detailed in the TV spot.

The IAP has also recently adopted a new version of its code, which includes even stricter provisions against gambling advertising, in particular with regard to preventing gambling that is associated to strong emotions or takes advantage of passion in sport.

There is no official reason for the clampdown by the IAP, but such moves usually come about as a result of broader pressures being exerted upon bodies such as the IAP.

The most likely to exert these pressures are the offline gambling groups unhappy at the exposure and market share their online counterparts are garnering through TV advertising. Clearly the medium is a vital cog of online groups’ marketing strategies, but because of the Institute’s stronger stance visibility is being reduced and Italian TV channels are at real risk of losing advertising revenues.

Meanwhile, signatories to the IAP code should also ask themselves if this concurs with the purposes of the Institute, which is to protect freedom of enterprise, meaning the freedom to advertise, promote and market companies’ businesses.

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