Best Offshore Casinos Italy: Your Ultimate Guide to Safe Offshore Gaming

Offshore casinos – a definition

Understanding the definition of offshore casinos is very simple, because it encompasses any online gambling house which is not operated within Italy, or does not operate under the license of the Italian regulatory body, call the Agenzia delle dogane e dei Monopoli, which we will be referring to as the ADM in this current article. In contrast, casinos which are regulated by the ADM are going to be called domestic casinos.

But, let's shift back to offshore casinos. Where are these houses operated from? Well, in general, most Italian players can access casinos found in three main offshore jurisdictions: Malta, Curacao and Anjouan, an autonomous island in the Comoros Union. If you have already played in an offshore casino, odds are, it has been licensed there!

Why Italian players prefer Offshore Casinos

As we mentioned at the start, the simple truth about offshore casinos in Italy is that there are simply quite a lot more of them than domestic ones. And some of these casinos can actually provide players with a significantly better service than the majority of domestic gambling houses! For instance, you could get access to a higher range of games in general.

There are also usually bigger bonuses, because casinos are more free to determine the content of the promotions they run. This means higher Welcome offers, more frequent Reload bonuses and even exclusive VIP perks for the most loyal players of such offshore casinos.

Also, offshore casinos tend to respect the privacy of their players more than their domestic Italian counterparts. They still do require you to verify that you are of legal gambling age to play within them, and still do comply with certain KYC policies, but the means through which offshore casinos verify player data are a bit more friendly in general!

When it comes to their payment policies, offshore houses are generally capable of offering every payment method you might expect to find in any domestic casino, such as credit cards or Postepay. However, there are also more payment methods to use with these houses in general, such as crypto, which does not seem accepted by most ADM-licensed casinos!

Finally, some players in Italy believe that offshore casinos are less safe, because of a lack of regulation. That is not particularly true, though, and most offshore gambling houses nowadays are actually licensed and offer a safe and fun gambling experience to their Italian players. Here are the nuances and differences in regulation between ADM-licensed gambling houses and the offshore casinos you can find in Italy nowadays:

Understanding the legal landscape of offshore casinos in Italy

Italian gambling regulations vs. Offshore Casino legality

First things first, how are online casinos regulated in Italy? Well, online gambling was banned entirely until 2012, which is when the country decided to decriminalize it and regulate it. The body which was tasked with that is precisely the ADM, and the regulatory regime it has created in the following years is pretty impressive!

One of the main concerns of the ADM when it comes to online gambling is addiction, and it has taken quite a few measures to make it easier for players to combat that.

The most important among them is the self-exclusion features licensed casinos in Italy need to implement for their players. You can self-exclude for 30, 60 or 90 days, during which no online casino, licensed by the ADM, will let you open or access your account. You can also enter an indefinite self-exclusion, which can be cancelled only after at least 6 months have passed.

This means that ADM-licensed casinos are required to maintain a register of self-excluded players, which is a pretty comprehensive and helpful way to combat problem gambling, which is great. Aside from that, the ADM maintains a helpline for gamblers you could call, too.

Another cornerstone of the casino regulation in Italy is actually the prevention of fraud and minors from gambling. To do so, houses are required to collect information on players, in order to verify their identity. Also, you sometimes need to provide domestic Italian casinos with a source of your income, as part of that anti-fraud and money laundering regulation.

However, in certain areas, the ADM regulation is perhaps a bit too strict. For instance, if you wish to withdraw your winnings, and if these winnings are more than €5200, you will actually have to reach out to the ADM, wait for it to set up a special ad hoc Commission which will then verify your winnings before authorizing the casino to pay them out. Needless to say, this is a pretty long delay, which cannot really be justified in any way!

Compared to the ADM, the majority of offshore casinos do offer similar, if not higher, regulatory protections, too. Of course, the specific protections do depend on the particular regulatory jurisdiction the casino is licensed to offer its services in. Here is what the regulatory regimes of the top offshore jurisdictions we mentioned before look like:

The offshore casino regulation of Malta

Malta is the strictest offshore casino license issuer, and the protections it offers are actually quite similar in scope and effectiveness to the ones the ADM has implemented. The regulatory body tasked with overseeing casinos licensed within Malta is called the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA), and it is well-regarded internationally as a fairly strict license issuer.

For instance, the casinos licensed within Malta also need to offer the same self-exclusion features, but they also let players set up custom deposit limits or even close down their account voluntarily. Every Malta-licensed casino operator needs to maintain a register of self-excluded persons and prevent them from opening accounts in their casinos. This is a similarly effective policy to the one we discussed, though less ambitious in scope.

Secondly, ensuring the legitimacy of the games you can play is another cornerstone of the regulatory regime of Malta. This is achieved by testing the games offered by casinos before they can be offered to players. More specifically, what is tested is actually the software of the games, their Random Number Generators (RNG). These complex mathematical algorithms are examined in order to determine there is no bias towards the casino in terms of how the outcomes of your bets are derived. With Malta-licensed offshore casinos, you can always be certain you are playing actual games of chance.

Also, if you do wish to open a dispute with an offshore casino, licensed in Malta, you will be able to do so before an impartial third body, which will examine said dispute and give you a fair verdict. This policy is actually pretty unique, with very few online casino regulators offering anything like that to players these days!

Next, Malta is also thorough in preventing minors from gambling, as well as ensuring its players are not committing financial crimes, or using stolen credit cards and so on. So, the MGA has implemented strict KYC policies for its license holders to follow, which actually ensure just that.

Overall, the regulatory regime in Malta is even stricter than the one by the ADM in certain areas, such as the RNG-testing and self-exclusion requirements maintained by the body, and is on par with the ADM regime in other areas, too.

The Curacao Gaming Control Board's regulatory regime

Next, we would like to examine the Curacao regulatory regime. This small Caribbean island has been the go-to destination for offshore casinos to set up and get licensed for years now, but its regulatory regime has changed pretty drastically with reforms carried out by the government of the country in 2023 and 2024. The rules casinos licensed in the country need to follow have been made quite a bit stricter, and a new regulatory body, called the Curacao Gaming Control Board (CGCB) has been created, in order to oversee them.

The CGCB has implemented the same RNG-testing requirements that Maltese offshore casinos need to offer. So, Italian players who play within gambling houses licensed within Curacao will also be able to know for sure that they are dealing with provably fair games.

Another important consequence of the Curacao Control Board's regulatory reform is the requirements for casinos to offer players self-exclusion tools. These include the ability to set up custom deposit limits and close down your account, but casinos are not required to offer cool down periods like their ADM and MGA-licensed counterparts. Still, that does not mean that Curacao-licensed houses never adopt that kind of policy!

Finally, combating fraud and money laundering, as well as making sure that all of their players are of legal age to gamble are also important cornerstones of the regulatory rules Curacao-licensed casinos need to follow. So, overall, the Curacao regulatory regime is a bit more relaxed than that of Malta, but the security guarantees that are available for players within casinos licensed within the country are actually quite significant, still!

The Anjouan Gaming Authority regulatory regime

The third common offshore casino license issuer that you will likely encounter in your journey through Italian offshore gambling houses is called Anjouan Gaming. Compared to the other two license issuers we went over, it is actually a bit of a newcomer to the scene. But Anjouan has really been taking off as a regulatory destination for casinos in recent years, and nowadays quite a lot of the new offshore houses we cover get a license from its Authority.

The regulatory implications of that license are actually a bit similar to those of a license by the Curacao Gaming Control Board. The main and most significant difference is actually the fact that casinos licensed by the Board need to offer players the specific self-exclusion measures we highlighted, the ability to set up custom deposit limits and to close down their accounts. Of course,

Anjouan Gaming license holders need to offer players self-exclusion tools, too. But the scope of what these tools are is left up to the casino to determine. In practice, this does mean that most casinos still offer the same two self-exclusion means, though.

Overall, Anjouan Gaming is a pretty decent license issuer, though! But, that said, let's go over what offshore casino regulatory backgrounds could look like when the houses are not licensed by one of the four bodies we mentioned so far:

Other regulatory regimes and unlicensed casinos

There are a couple more regulators which Italian players can encounter when dealing with offshore casinos, too. These are bodies like the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, the Estonian Tax and Customs Board and so on. Generally speaking, these bodies do provide players with a fairly decent range of protections, and can be said to have regulation that is on par with what Curacao-licensed gambling houses tend to offer players. So, it is safe to play within them.

Of course, it is always possible that you will actually be dealing with an unlicensed casino, too! These houses are set up in countries like Costa Rica which do not regulate their iGaming market. We generally recommend staying away from them. Do note that a lack of a license does not automatically make an offshore casino fraudulent, but it does mean there are no guarantees that it can offer you any of the regulatory protections we mentioned so far! So, we believe licensed offshore casinos in Italy are a better choice!

Are Offshore Casinos a Safe Bet for Italian Players?

Absolutely! As you saw from the previous section of our review, these casinos are pretty competitive in terms of the protections they offer access to, provided they are actually licensed. Once again, we recommend dealing only with licensed casinos.

What's more, the other features of offshore casinos, such as their payment methods, their games and more are usually quite sophisticated, too, and can meet the standards of even the most rigorous players in Italy. Let's take a look at the key features that offshore casinos tend to have nowadays: