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Thursday is a landmark day for the Italian online gambling sector, with the government expected to gazette and bring into force new regulations further opening up the market to poker cash games and internet casino action.

It’s been three years since the Italian government adopted a more realistic and pragmatic approach to online gambling, introducing a strictly regulated domestic industry that has since burgeoned into one of the most lucrative and successful in Europe under the regulatory authority of the AAMS.

After some delays caused by litigation now settled, AAMS last month published the legal decree making the latest changes, which permit online poker satellites and tournaments with buy-ins maxed at 250 Euros. At least 90% of prize pools must be returned to winning players.

Operators pay a 20% tax on gross gaming receipts in the Italian market.

Iowa was in the gambling news again this week, but it was not in connection with the online gambling legislation currently before the state Senate. Allegations of misuse of funding were leveled at the Eastern Iowa Center for Problem Gambling by state auditor David Vaudt, who claimed that almost $90,000 in problem gambling funding derived from land casinos and the state lottery had been used inappropriately.

The spending under investigation diverted funds from the priorities of the centre, which should have been the treatment of addicted gamblers, but Vaudt found that over $38,000 went to staff in over-payments; almost $30,000 were spent on travel expenses for the centre’s director, Janet Meisenbach; unproved expenses gobbled up another $27,000 and the rest went on vacation payouts.

Associated Press reports that Meisenback has not reacted to the auditor’s report, and apparently has been less than cooperative so far, claiming that she was not aware of any audit of the funds under her management care. It is not yet known whether criminal charges will be filed.

The World Series of Poker Circuit event in Palm Beach, Florida, was the site of two historic occurrences.  The Palm Beach Kennel Club, a local dog-racing track, was the first non-casino facility to host a WSOP Circuit tournament.  The event ended with a historical milestone as well: John Riordan, a nineteen-year-old from Florida, became the youngest winner in WSOP Circuit history.

Riordan won US$210,180 at the no-limit Texas Holdem tournament.  The event, the first WSOP Circuit tournament held in Florida, carried a buy-in of US$1,600 and featured over seven hundred players, for a total prize pool exceeding US$1 million.

Florida law allows players to enter poker tournaments at eighteen, as opposed to most states, which specify a minimum age of twenty-one.  Riordan also became the first American under the age of twenty-one to win a WSOP-related event.  Annette Obrestad won the WSOP Europe Main Event in 2007 the day before her nineteenth birthday.

Although this WSOP Circuit win is Riordan’s first as a live player, he has accrued a substantial resume by playing online poker.  He started playing “play money” games at thirteen years old.  At age eighteen, he started playing “real money” games and worked his way up to playing high-stakes pot-limit Omaha.

Riordan will not be eligible to play in another major tournament in the US until 2013, which means he will not be allowed to participate in the WSOP Circuit National Championship event in Las Vegas this May.  The National Championship grants free entries to winners at all WSOP Circuit events and has a guaranteed prize pool of US$1 million.