The Italian government has adopted the law that bans gambling advertising completely. Here are the details about the ban and its implications.

The law decree enforcing the gambling advertising ban technically came into force from July 14. However, there is a provision in the law that allows ongoing contractual agreements, which were already signed, to extend till 16 July 2019, as the case may be.  

Additionally, the law decree provides that the existing gambling advertising regulations are still applicable which shows that in the intention of the Government some types of gambling advertising should be allowed, otherwise existing gambling advertising regulations would not be meant to regulate anything.

The consequence of the above is that the ban as of today does not apply to anything… Also, the law decree still needs to be ratified by the Parliament which might either implement changes or even cancel it.

Is the gambling advertising ban legal?

Even if we are able to argue that from the 1st of January 2019 the ban would be applicable to some gambling advertising activities, it should be considered that: this is a law decree which is an urgent measure that was not urgent since a transitional period of up to 1 year was granted. Therefore an abuse of the regulatory instrument of the law decree took place; this is a technical regulation that was not notified to the European Commission with the required 3 month “stand still” period which is provided by the EU Directive 2015/1535, and this is a measure that is basically completely banning online gambling because online gaming operators can market their services only through remote channels of communication. Therefore if no advertising whatsoever can be performed, they cannot make the public aware of their services and therefore they cannot do business. This is a disproportionate limitation of the freedom of doing business provided by the Italian Constitution and of the EU principle to provide services.

The hope is that the Government will understand the mistake and go back to the existing gambling advertising regulations that if enforced would already set very stringent restrictions to gambling advertising.

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Warner Bros. has removed loot boxes and microtransactions in their epic game Shadow of War.

Warner announced that Middle-Earth: Shadow of War – a game heavily criticised for the way it used loot boxes – would be dropping them entirely.

The company’s new update completely removes the market and microtransactions, so you can no longer buy orcs for your army using real money. But what’s most interesting is that Warner has revamped the end-game, which is being streamlined to include new narration from Shelob, the Witch-king, and Dark Talion. Plus, you can now earn Nazgûl masks which give you the ability to raise the dead, curse enemies, and summon more powerful monsters. In the original version of the game it was obvious that the end-game had been made artificially difficult, requiring hours of repetitive gameplay, in order to encourage the use of microtransactions as a short cut. That was the most reprehensible part of the game as far as we were concerned and to see it changed in this way is very encouraging.

The update also brings other changes unrelated to microtransactions, with an increase in level caps and bigger experience point rewards for completing missions. There is also new prestige skills and the ability to upgrade gear by using in-game currency. Overall, there are now more legendary orcs in the game and more ways to get training orders. You also get a few new player skins for Celebrimbor, Dark Eltariel, and Baranor.

Source: metro.co.uk

Play’n GO, the Malta-based slots supplier, is planning to release more music-led slots by joining hands with metal band Candlemass.

Johan Törnqvist, the company’s chief executive, said creating House of Doom in collaboration with Candlemass was more rewarding than doing an IP deal, as suppliers have done previously.

“We felt that we wanted to do something else. Something with more artistic freedom and definitely more involvement of the actual band, and here we have an amazing collaboration.”

Törnqvist also commented on the rapid growth the company has experienced in recent months, leading to a recent investment in new office space at Tigne Point in Malta.

“We are investing heavily in people and, in terms of offices, we are growing pretty much everywhere that we are based today. I don’t think we will be opening any new offices in new locations, but we are definitely expanding the ones we have,” he said.

Play’n GO is a Swedish slots producer and online and land-based casino platform supplier with a strong focus on omni-channel gaming.

Source:igamingbusiness.com