The most important innovations in Betting Regulation
The online betting sector has been affected by recent regulatory measures in Italy governing cash out and value bets.
The online betting sector on the sites of operators authorised by ADM (Customs and Monopolies Agency) has been affected by several legislative interventions in recent years, which have aimed to regulate the activities of bookmakers and promote safe and responsible gambling, both for the protection of bettors and for the guarantee of public interests in legality and transparency.
In this regard, one of the most important regulatory interventions is represented by the Italian Ministerial Decree No. 145 of 1 August 2022, which introduced some important changes for both players and dealers.
The rules on cash out in the Ministerial Decree 145/2022
In particular, the measure adopted by the Minister of Economy and Finance introduced into our legal system the cash out mechanism, which was already widespread in the world of betting but, prior to Decree 145/22, was still lacking official regulation in Italy.
According to the new rule (Art. 10 paragraph 8 of the aforementioned decree), the operator may propose to the participant the advance payment of a bet before the last of the predicted events takes place, offering them a certain amount of money as winnings, which the bettor is free to accept or deny. Obviously, this amount may be lower than the amount initially played.
Those who have some practice with sports betting are familiar with the advantages of this option: for example, if the bettor has guessed the outcome of multiple events, they will, on the one hand, have the chance to cash out the entire winnings, should they also guess the last event contained in their bet. On the other hand, they will still be exposed to the possibility of losing their entire bet, should the last event not go as predicted.
That is why the operator’s offer of an amount of money before the last match is played, even if it is less than the winnings shown on the bet receipt, may be the most attractive way to pocket a certain prize.
The new betting win limit
As part of the new betting regulations, an important novelty is also the increase in the maximum win limit from the previous 10,000 euros to 50,000 euros (Art. 14 paragraph 2 of the aforementioned Ministerial Decree).
While those described so far may appear to be pro-bettor innovations, there is also an important novelty that serves the interests of betting companies, whose introduction has not been without controversy.
This is the rule that protects operators in the event of clearly disproportionate odds, which in jargon are called value bets.
Online betting rules: the odds error and the discipline of value bets
It may happen, in fact, that the operator is mistaken in attributing odds to a given outcome, and this is particularly attractive for the bettor, because the probability of the outcome being achieved is greater than what the respective odds predict.
Well, in this case, according to Art. 8 of the Ministerial Decree 145/2022, the dealer who detects an odds error for one or more outcomes of a bet contained in an already accepted participation receipt, may request ADM (the Customs and Monopoly Agency that manages the national betting totalizer) to recognise the odds error and consequently recalculate the odds.
In conclusion, however, the fact that timely regulation of online betting has been introduced is to be welcomed by both operators and bettors, as this makes the world of betting safer, more transparent, and legal.