The lawyer Riccardo Ripamonti (Ripamonti Law Firm), author of the book “IL MANUALE DEL PVR” (available on Amazon at the following link:https://www.amazon.it/MANUALE-DEL-PVR-Comprendere-violazioni/dp/B0CKWC9Q3B), commented on the text of the legislative decree definitively approved by the Council of Ministers as follows:
“The reform, in my opinion, unreasonably distorts the figure of the PVR, exposing itself to possible complaints of unconstitutionality for violation of the art. 76 of the Constitution.
The art. 76 of the Constitution, as is known, requires the Government to comply - in exercising the legislative power delegated to it by Parliament - with the "principles" and "directive criteria" established by the Delegation Law.
Well, within the scope of the Delegation Law (law 111/2023, art. 15 letter c), the Legislator had simply requested to prevent PVRs from "offering remote gaming" and "paying the related winnings" , without ever requiring them to set quantitative limits on the performance of the relevant tasks and, in particular, on the topping up of the gaming accounts of the various customers.
The Government, however, appears to have clearly gone beyond these directives, establishing a stringent overall limit on gaming account top-up operations (for a maximum of 100 euros per week in cash), although the Delegation Law required nothing (even indirectly) in this regard. .
The same goes for the prohibition on "withdrawal" or in any case "movement" of sums deposited in the player's gaming account. In essence, this is the much-discussed possibility for the player to "withdraw" the funds contained in his gaming account directly from the PVR (a practice, to be honest, that has always been the subject of controversy, which is often mistakenly assimilated to the – very different – “payment of winnings” by the PVR). Analyzing the text of the Delegation Law, however, we do not find any specific provision that has delegated to the Government the preparation of such an operational ban.
However, the figure of the PVR emerges from this reform profoundly limited, perhaps not in a very reasonable way.
Currently, in fact, according to art. 5 lett. g) of the Agreement Scheme in force, the PVR consists of a physical point dedicated to carrying out "activities for the promotion and dissemination of the games covered by the agreement, the related gaming account contracts and the resale of the top-up card". Starting from the (future) implementation of the reform, however, the PVR's activity will be profoundly restricted, in application of limits and prohibitions which, however, do not appear to find any regulatory basis in Delegation Law no. 111/2023: this circumstance could expose the reform to risks of unconstitutionality, due to violation of the art. 76 Constitution".
