在2012年意大利在线扑克收入下降了30%(2)

译文：

　　ITALIAN ONLINE POKER DECLINES WITH 30% IN 2012

　　Online poker revenues and traffic has declined with a huge 30% in Italy since July 2011. This was revealed in a report just published by the Italian online gambling regulatory body, AAMS.

　　Online gambling analysts were already aware of the difficulties the Italian online poker scene has experienced during the recent past. A just released report by the regulator AAMS confirms these suspicions after it revealed that Italian online poker decided with a huge 30% since last year.

　　Online poker cash games are regulated in Italy since July 2011. That was also the date when the Italian online poker scene started to decline as more and more players have decided to abandon the game. Observers believe that ring fencing along with high taxes is responsible for this decline.

　　The legalization of online poker and the launch of cash games in Italy also meant that operators were forced to separate their Italian players from international players. This decision had a great toll on the online poker market since operators' national player pools were not big enough to support many active tables and a lot of large tournaments.

　　Despite the large decease, some online poker operators actually managed to strengthen their position in the country. PokerStars.it, for example increased its market share to 32.2% in August this year. This is followed by Lottomatica who owns 12.8% of the market and Gioco Digitale.it with 7% of the market.

　　In regards to networks, the biggest one in Italy is Microgame/People's Poker Network with a share of 17.8%. This is followed by the iPoker Network run by Playtech with a share of 15.8%. The third largest network in the country is Ongame that was just recently taken over by Amaya Gaming.

　　Tournament traffic is clearly dominated by PokerStars.it with a share of 44.2%. This is followed by Ongame with just 13.3% and iPoker with 13.2%. Also very close to the previous two are Microgame with 12.2% and Lottomatica with 11.3%.

　　At this point it's not certain what will happen in Italy in regards to online poker. It's very likely that a solution to this issue would only be the interlinking of operators' Italian online poker player pools with player pools of other countries. This however is extremely unlikely to happen in the near future.

　　A possible short term relief could be the upcoming launch of online slot games in Italy. This December the Italian online gambling regulator will officially give the green light to online slot games, completing the regulation of the country's gambling market.