Online Casino, casinos

At the beginning of the month, the whole of the online gaming profession met in the Maison de la Chimie in Paris to discuss an important matter which is summed up in the title of the conference “Cash games, the internet and community law: how can the French model be adapted?” This conference was organised by the Yvelines MP, Jacques Mayard and other government personalities were present notably the leader of this debate, Jean-Francois Lamour, member of the finance commission of the  National Assembly and Jean-Marie Leguen, MP for Paris.

Two round tables, whose participants came from different areas, were organised in the morning and the afternoon. Christophe Blanchard-Dignac ( Chairman and CEO of the Francaise des Jeux) , Xavier Hurstel (Director General of the PMU) came to defend their vision of the opening up of the online gaming market and the main people involved in gambling were present like Maarten Haijer, director of regulatory affairs at the European Gaming and Betting Association or Pontus Lindwall, Chairman and CEO of the online gaming site Betsson. Associations for the protection of gamblers like Sos Players,( Armelle Achour),  Adictel (Eric Bouhanna) were present as well as Jean- Pierre Martignoni-Hutin, a sociologist specialising in gambling or Jean-Pierre Alezra, chief of the central service for racing and gaming of the Central Direction of the Judicial Police in the Ministry of the Interior.

Many online gaming groups like Chiligaming, Party Gaming, Euro Partners and many others came to find out how France was going to open up its online gaming market in 2010. Casinoweb was also at the Maison de la Chimie and we were able to be present at a very interesting “debate”. The online gaming market in France is going to be legalised in a few months time  but there is little chance that the first gaming licences will be granted for the 1st of January 2010. In fact, it's probable that the first online gaming groups will receive their authorisation to carry on business in France in the first or even the second quarter of next year due to the fact that the law must be debated in parliament and the Regulatory Authority for Online Gaming must analyse the different applications from the operators and see if they conform to the regulations.

This conference didn't manage to advance the “impasse” since the gaming operators and the government don't see things in the same way, each defending its own interests for example the rate of deductions at 2% on the wagers of poker players. Alexandre Dreyfus, Chairman and CEO of Chiligaming said that these high deductions were killing the Game of poker ( see the Interview with Alexandre Dreyfus) but whether they are poker, sports betting or horse racing operators they must obey the rules which are: 2% on poker, 7.5% on horse racing and sport betting . As for casino games, they will have to wait their turn. Therefore the Barriere Group's online casino operating in the United Kingdom will have to wait some months ( or years?) before offering its services to the french and the Partouche sites will be considered illegal.

This 3rd parliamentary meeting about gaming wasn't really a debate but rather a conference which explained that the online gaming operators must show that they have the right credentials ( respect the regulations, editor's note) in order to obtain a french gaming licence and the holders of European licences won't automatically be holders of the french gaming licence. The world of gaming has aroused the interest of many contenders notably Patrick Le Lay, ex- Chairman and CEO of TF1, now in internet sports betting who came to explain his move into gambling. Definitely, gaming is attracting everybody and it's an easy bet that there will be repercussions until its official opening. To be continued....

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