France to Open
up Online Gambling Industry in 2009
June 11 - Both French online gambling fans and
international online gambling companies should be celebrating
with the announcement this week by the French government, that
the country will open up its online gambling industry in 2009.
Up until now, France has staved off pressure from the European
Union (EU) to open up its online gambling market to other
European countries, instead choosing to allow only its
state-owned gambling companies to offer online gambling services
to its citizens.
The European Court of Justice recently ruled that online
gambling firms registered in a EU state must be allowed to
operate across all 27 EU member states. However, it included a
stipulation that a nation can ban online gambling if it citizens
are against the practice.
Since June last year, France has been targeted by the European
Commission for infringing its online gambling policies as an EU
member state. Online gambling in the country is currently
restricted to PMU for horse racing and Française des Jeux
for lotteries.
After a meeting with the with European Commissioner, Charlie
MacCreevy, the French Budget Minister, Eric Woerth, announced
that France will comply with the EC online gambling policies by
the second half of 2009. Woerth confirmed that France will begin
a controlled opening-up of its online betting market.
However, the controlled market opening will only include mutual betting
on horse races. The French government
has confirmed that it will look at introducing other forms of sports betting
with the respective sports leagues, as well as traditional
casino games like blackjack, roulette and poker.
EU authorities are currently awaiting further details on
France's plan to comply with its controlled online gambling
roll-out, before it makes a final decision on whether to suspend European
Court of Justice legal proceedings in the matter.
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