Big problems in little Italy

[Mamet]

Sorry for the pathetic attempt at being clever in the title.

A while back someone posted this article, related to online gambling in Italy:
http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?at_code=299946

This is going to have quite an effect on my life, and I was wondering if anybody knows anything more about this or has any idea about the probability of not being able to access online poker sites in Italy later this year. I've searched on the internet and was unable to find any more information.

The reason this affects me is that I'm in school right now, and am hoping to spend a year studying abroad in Italy. I've been planning this for a while and was extremely disappointed when I initially read that article. I'm paying for my school with poker winnings, so quitting for a year isn't really an option, and if it turns out that there's a good chance that at some point in the year I wont be able to access online poker sites I guess I'll have to forget the whole thing. The deadline for applying to the study abroad programs is quickly approaching, and I would appreciate any and all news opinions and predictions about this.

[Nut4Dawgs]

I have no idea how you'd go about contacting an Italian politician but you might learn something from an Italian Consulate here in the U.S. If there's not one in your city maybe the online site(s) where you play could shed some light. They certainly share your interest.

[adsman]

I live in Italy and while initially there was a great deal of anxiety at this proposal, it seems that things have calmed down quite a bit. If Italy go ahead with this legislation then will be in breach of European law. Plus some countries, such as Britian, have threatened Italy with trade boycotts on products such as wine. There will be a lot of noise but I very much doubt that this legislation will become law. I think you can safely come across.

[Mamet]

Fantastic! Thanks so much for the information. I visited Rome last Christmas and absolutely loved it, and am looking forward to staying for a full year. Thanks/grazie again.

[jj_frap]

This is what happens when people are stupid enough to elect right-wing governments.

[contact77]

Just to let people know, you can still play in Italy as of February 22nd 2006.

[RonH]

Even if they do, there are ways around it. They block gambling sites here at work, but when I am working late with nothing to do, I just connect to my PC at home and run the Poker client from there.

I use logmein.com, but I am sure there are others out there. logmein.com is free and works pretty well. Just leave a PC at your parents house, with instructions on how to reboot once in a while.

Ron

[Sciolist]

I'm pretty sure this is already in effect in Italy - at least, that's what support were told here.

The ISPs are liable here, not you. It's fine for you to connect to a site, but it's not fine for the ISPs to allow that. You can get around it with proxies or a remote session to a machine in a country where it's allowed. Furthermore, PokerStars isn't even on the list (for now), though most other sites are.

[contact77]

In Indonesia, I could log into Stars, but couldn't log into Party.....