PokerStars opens Italian site

<img src="http://admins.liquidpoker.net/staff/DeFraG/17_10_2008/italyflag.jpg" align="right" style="margin:5px; border:1px solid black;">Last Thursday PokerStars, the biggest and most respected online poker room, has officially announced the launch of PokerStars.it, their Italian regional site! This historical event took place right after PokerStars was granted an official license to offer online poker from Italy's <b>Autonomous Administration of State Monopolies</b> (AAMS in Italian, part of the Ministry of Economy and Finances), which allows Italian players to officially and legally play online poker for real money!

It's a known fact that Italy is a very conservative country. Back in 2006 the Italian parliament approved a financial Law that blocked many betting sites for Italian citizens. The law 266/2005 obligated Internet providers and telecommunication networks to inhibit usage of their networks for betting and gaming services. Considering this, the fact that PokerStars got a license from the government makes this an important step towards the legalization of poker in the old continent.

<i>"Players on PokerStars.it will have the opportunity to win their entry into famous international poker events – like the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour and the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas,"</i> said Italian Team PokerStars Pro <b>Dario Minieri</b>. <i>"These competitions require players to have the right mix of skill, training, concentration and luck."</i>

<i>"PokerStars is proud to be entering a flourishing market with this new product. This is a ground breaking time for the online poker industry, and it's very exciting that the Italian market is pioneering this move. This is the start of a global template which could potentially be adopted in other markets internationally in the next few years,"</i> commented PokerStars Italian Country Manager <b>Fabio Angeli Bufalini</b>.

Apart from the regular PokerStars features, Italian players will also have Italy-only tournaments with buy-ins varying from €0.50 to €100.00. PokerStars expects that <b>half a million</b> Italian players will open an account in the first year of PokerStars.it.

So can you play there if you are not in Italy?
Can you play against people that are playing on that site on PokerStars.com?

On October 18 2008 12:29 capaneo wrote: So can you play there if you are not in Italy? Can you play against people that are playing on that site on PokerStars.com?

That's what I want to know. Are we about to get more fish on stars?

well tbh I'm kinda confused
in the italian blog they say 'you can play playmoney with users from all around the world', like if they *still* cannot play realmoney, like if they are adopting their software to the italian needs.

later they say the software will allow them to chat in italian, what pretty much means they will play only among themselves.

time to learn italian imo

so can we play with star.it or it's completely separate? i want the fishes to come to stars.com ;o

its logical to assume they will play only with themselves

On October 18 2008 21:20 Baal wrote: its logical to assume they will play only with themselves

Why is that logical?

"Apart from the regular PokerStars features, Italian players will also have Italy-only tournaments"

guessing that means they will play with everyone else

Basically that news means that online poker is officially legal in Italy now, and PokerStars is first big company that got some 'local paper' allowing them to operate on Italian ground ;p

And yeah, they will play with everyone else - additionally at start they will have some Italian only tournaments, obviously to get more players to play on PokerStars.

If anyone was in Italy ( for example during EPT San Remo ) he / she would know that it was impossible to enter any poker related site on the internet ;p

Hallo

We thank you for having contacted the PokerStars Support Team.

If you are a resident of the country in question then you should be able to
access the software if you are indeed a resident of that country. Otherwise
you will only be able to play against these players in play money games.

I hope this answers your questions. If not, please feel free to e-mail us
with any further queries you might have.

Regards,

Dario M
PokerStars Support Team

^^ Dario Mineri is on the support team now? lol

Interesting very interesting..........pause..................................................not

italians are always interesting because many many horrible players are from italy

so dont be a fag