EGBA hits out at French gaming laws ahead of Assembly debate
The French draft regulation of online gaming that will be debated in France's National Assembly this week will protect monopolies, does not benefit consumers and remains in breach of EU law, the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) said today.
THE FRENCH DRAFT regulation of online gaming that will be debated in France’s National Assembly this week will protect monopolies, does not benefit consumers and remains in breach of EU law, the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) said today.
EGBA said that seven months after the association submitted a complaint to the European Commission that the French proposal conflicts with the EC Treaty, key provisions of the French draft law still did not comply with the Treaty.
EGBA secretary general Sigrid Ligne (pictured) said: “Several key restrictions in the draft do not serve any general interest purpose, whether consumer or public order protection. Ring-fencing the French market goes against the cross-border nature of the Internet, would lead to the emergence of an underground, uncontrolled market where consumers would be deprived from any protection.”
EGBA warned that the opening of the horserace betting market limited to pool betting only is based on the sole justification that it is a “French tradition,” and “will force incumbents to align their offer with the one of PMU, preventing them from offering fixed odds bets on horse races to French players when fixed odds bets will be allowed other sports.”
It also said that France’s justification for limits on the payback ratio to players that doing so will limit problem gaming is not based on evidence, and that the limit will force new entrants to erase their most competitive advantage.
The average ratio is currently 75% for Francais Des Jeux (FDJ) and 78% for Pari Muteul Urbain (PMU), while online EU operators usually pay back 95% or more to players. On the strength of its prospects in the soon-to-be regulated French market, FDJ was included in this year’s eGaming Review Power 50 leading operators for the first time, with PMU and EGBA members Bwin, PartyGaming and Unibet also re-entering the ranking.
EGBA added that forcing EU operators to establish an IT platform in France in order to provide data which could be provided cross-border from their existing IT platforms will “create a clear operational and financial disadvantage for non-French operators”.
The introduction of a sports betting right “creates a worrying precedent” in granting sports bodies ownership of information that is currently in the public domain, it continued, and will favour higher publicity sports at the expense of less visible ones.
EGBA also disputed that the right was necessary to protect sports integrity, as French regulators have claimed, as “most EU regulated operators already enforce early detection systems at their own cost which allow them to block suspicious bets and alert in real time the relevant sports authorities. These concerns beg the question as to whether the French model will be workable and economically viable,“ Ligné said.
For more on this topic, see our March feature on the new French regulations.
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