October month end: egaming in France - jobs pour les garcons

YOU HAVE TO HAND it to the French.

Not content with being one of the founder member states of the European Union and the common market, they also excel in devising the most fiendishly protectionist and anti-European policies when it comes to trading with their EU counterparts.

We are, of course, talking about the draft regulation of online gaming that was debated in France’s National Assembly at the start of October.

When eGaming Review broke the news that private operators will be forced to shut down the existing accounts of French players once the law was passed in January 2010 and only allowed to register new French accounts once they were licensed in June, leaving the field clear for the Française des Jeux and Pari Mutuel Urbain monopolies to advertise and register real money accounts while the competition watches from the sidelines, it seemed simply too unfair to be true.

But, of course, it wasn’t; and if the Senate passes the law next year, we will be in for another round of law suits against the French government for unfair competition and abuse of dominant position.

But what can the industry do? Operators with a big presence in France are right to be indignant but the only way to address the issue is through the courts and that takes time.

Also, it should be pointed out that a number of EU-licensed operators that have so far not been active or highly visible in France, such as SPS Betting, will not be too displeased at seeing those companies having to stop their relentless march onwards in that market.

What is clear is that if the amendment makes it into law, EU-licensed operators would be entitled to tell the French authorities that they will not be getting licensed and will keep operating from their offshore locations.

But that would also give the French the perfect opportunity to claim they have done everything they could to accommodate these ‘illegal’ sites and look at the response.

A tough call for the likes of Betclick, Bwin and Unibet but also for the likes of Everest Poker, Poker 770 and Winamax.

This article first appeared in the October issue of eGaming Review.

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