Poker Veloce Hits Italy


Sunday, July 22,  2012 : ONLINE ‘POKER VELOCE' APPROVED FOR ITALIAN MARKET
 
Italian players can now play the most popular poker innovation in recent times
 
Online poker operators searching for another verb to use in branding their fast-fold poker products have a new one to play with – "poker veloce".
 
The term is used by the Italian regulator AAMS, which this week approved the universally popular speed poker derivative, defining it as any cash game with a “fast fold” function that transfers the player to a new table immediately.
 
As predicted, the new regulation permits fast-fold player pools with up to 5,000 players, and multiple entries per-person. The maximum buy-in allowed is Euro 1,000, similar to existing limits for cash games.
 
Almost all the online poker operators in the Italian market already have access to well-tried and hugely popular fast-fold software from various providers; iPoker offers Speed Hold'em, and Pokerstars has Zoom, for example.
 
One possible exception is major Italian operator, Microgame's People's Network, but given the popularity of the genre it is unlikely to hold off on taking advantage of the new permission.
 
Bearing in mind the June collaborative meetings between Italian, Spanish, French and Portuguese regulators, and the subsequent signing of MoU's that has included the UK Gambling Commission, it is not outside the bounds of possibility that a harmonisation of national regulatory requirements could evolve, opening the way to pooled player liquidity and benefits for all.