Mobile casino operator LeoVegas has launched an awareness campaign aimed at pushing back against Italy’s new ban on gambling advertising.

Last Friday, LeoVegas ran a two-page ad (pictured) in Italy’s Corriere dello Sport publication featuring the company’s new campaign hashtag: #GIOCAPERGIOCO (play for fun). A Google translation of the accompanying text reads as follows:

Dear players, we have waited for you, we have desired you and finally we are there. To win in this new season will require passion, sacrifice and commitment. Only by challenging you with honor and dignity, like true lions, victory will be near. Good championship everyone. We are still here by your side!

Italian gaming affiliate Jamma quoted LeoVegas CEO Niklas Lindahl saying the use of the word ‘dignity’ in the ad was no accident, referencing the new Italian government’s so-called Dignity Decree, which was approved this month, and includes a moratorium on all gambling advertising and sponsorships, effective January 1, 2019 (with existing sponsorships grandfathered until June 30).