Out of all the countries in Europe, the one with the largest representation in the pool of European online poker players is Italy.

According to industry analyst GamblingClub.com in a Marketwire press release out of Malta, Italy is the European country with the largest online poker player base. That is, of all the European countries, the one with the largest representation at the online poker tables is Italy.

The first time that Italy’s online poker segment outshined those of every other country in the EU was in 2010, according to figures that were published by H2 Capital, a leading specialist in gaming data. H2 Capital said that until then, the UK had the largest online poker sector in Europe.

Italy was one of the first countries in Europe to sanction normal online poker as well as online slots and other online casino games. But at first, Italian players could only participate in tournaments when it came to online poker. That changed in July of 2011 when Italian online gaming laws were reformed to allow cash games. That seemed to release the floodgates on Italian cash game players and the rest, as they say, is history.

H2 Capital projects that Italy will continue to surge in online poker growth year after year through at least 2014.

Meanwhile, in another part of Europe, Bulgaria is just opening its cyber-doors to online gambling for the first time. On March 15, 2012, the Bulgarian Parliament adopted its first law to allow online gambling, setting up licensing structures for operators in and out of the country.