Italy's automatic renewal of more than 300 licenses for horse races in 1999 was illegal and the country broke European Union laws by doing so, according to an adviser to the European Court of Justice.
This was the most recent push to the EU's executive Commission plan to open Europe's gambling sector to new competition. The court will decide on the matter in following months and it is likely that it will follow the opinion of its advisers.
In 2004, the Commission took Italy to the court following the country's Finance Ministry's decision to renew 320 licenses for taking bets on horse races without offering them to other factors and opening the market.
The adviser said that the Finance Ministry had breached the EU's general principle of transparency and requirements for advertising such contracts.
Italy is not the only country that the European Commission has taken legal action against. Last week the Commission stepped up legal action against other members of the EU, including Finland, Denmark and Hungary, and is continuing investigations gambling markets in Germany and Sweden, in an attempt to open the rich European sports betting market that is worth billion of euros.
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