Gioco Digitale Say ‘Shuffle Up and Deal!’ for Online Poker in Italy
Thursday, 4 September 2008
Having got approval from Italy’s gaming authority, Gioco Digitale opened the first real-money poker tables online this week. Two tables of player sat in with buy ins of €0.50 with the 18 players finishing their play after 90 minutes.
Carlo Gualandri, president of Gioco Digitale, was believed to be very satisfied to be the first operators in Italy to offer real-money games. The company had processed over 50,000,000 play hands in the months preceding the launch, as well as 1.5 million tournament hands.
With the first cash hands having been played, the Italian government hopes the business will be worth €400 million in its first year.