France's Lamour 'very happy' at McCreevy EC departure

THE RAPPORTEUR TO the French parliament for the draft legislation on online gaming and betting, Jean-Francois Lamour, has said he is “very happy” that pro-free market European commissioner for internal markets Charlie McCreevy is to leave his post.

Ireland’s McCreevy will be replaced in the post, which holds responsibility for overseeing the EU’s betting and gaming policy, by France’s Michel Barnier, a close ally and political advisor to Nicolas Sarkozy, in late January or early February next year. Under McCreevy’s watch, the European Commission has decided against rules protecting state-backed gaming operators from competition in markets including France, Denmark, Hungary and Finland.

Speaking at the fourth Parliamentary conference on online gaming regulation in Paris yesterday, Lamour said: “I am very happy at the departure of Charlie McCreevy from his position as EU commissioner for internal markets, and am also very happy about the arrival of Michel Barnier as his replacement. I say what I think and how I see it.”

France has often viewed the EU Commission’s infringement actions against it regarding online gaming and betting as a bias by McCreevy toward what it terms the ‘Anglo-Saxon’ model of more open competition across European markets.

Lamour welcomed the arrival of Barnier in the job, while the egaming industry waits to see how Barnier will deal with the backlog of infringement proceedings awaiting decisions. Of particular interest will be how the European Commission, which has already questioned the compatibility of France’s draft regulation for online gaming with some aspects of European law, will address that issue following Barnier’s arrival.

Barnier has served as Commissioner previously, covering regional policy from 1999 to 2004. He will be assisted by Jonathan Faull, a long-serving British senior Commission official, who will take over as director general in this area.

The conference, organised by French MP Jacques Myard, brought together leading stakeholders in the French gaming industry such as Patrick Le Lay, head of fund investment at Eurosportbet stakeholder Serendipity; and Isabelle Parize, chief executive of Mangas Gaming, parent company to Betclick, Expekt and Bet-at-home.

Le Lay said “France had to remain credible” and endeavour to meet the deadline for licensing operators of the football World Cup starting in June 2010 in South Africa, while Parize said the taxation being proposed by France was six times higher than that in the UK, and three times as high as that currently in place in the newly regulated Italian market.

Parize added that the draft regulation potentially did not comply with European law and that publishing and broadcasting organisations “should stop dreaming” that there will be hundreds of thousands of Euros in advertising revenues waiting for them as soon as operators are allowed to openly advertise across French media.