Slow French Process Has Online Casinos Jumping the Gun
The French government is not moving fast enough to open the online casino market for some operators. Partouche Group, which runs both Internet and land-based casinos, may go ahead and start accepting French customers online using a Gibralter license.
The French government had passed rules gradually allowing the incorporation of licensed and regulated French online casinos into the legal market. But opponents of gambling have been stalling the measure's progress, and French Budget Minister Eric Woerth said it would be 2010 before the program to liberalize the law began.
An October conference between authorities and online gambling operators resulted in a shouting match when government officials intimated that the process might be slower than expected. Patrick Partouche of Partouche Group observed that many foreign-based sites such as Unibet and Bwin are ignoring the slowly changing French law and accepting online wagers at the present. They cite the overriding principles of European Union law as their basis for disregarding French statutes.
Partouche already pays an exorbitant fifty-eight percent tax rate for his land operations, and now he feels he is not being allowed to compete with online gaming sites, despite having the capability and technology.
Partouche thus plans to open an online casino from outside France and enter the market without waiting for the government to act. In the meantime, a meeting of European Union members is expected Monday, December 1st, to clarify and unify positions on gambling regulation.
