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Clive Hawkswood, Chief Executive of Remote Gambling Association. chawkswood@rga.e
u.com
“France is potentially a very important market, but the regulatory and tax regime is one of the least viable anywhere for operators. This may be because France was pushed towards a partial opening up of its markets by the European Commission and every concession since then has been grudging. The biggest drawback is the high tax burden which is based on a turnover model. The second biggest flaw is the limitation on products. Online poker is permitted. Online casinos are not. Fixed odds betting is allowed on sports, but not on horseracing. In order to take bets on sports the licensees must have the approval of the sports in question. This calls for a royalty agreement to be in place and also gives the sports the ability to veto betting markets that they do not like. To add to the difficulties there is a maximum return to player rate that means pricing is very uncompetitive compared to offerings outside of France. This, linked to the absence of any French online casinos, has no doubt contributed to an apparent seepage in the market toward operators who are not licensed in France. The French regulator, ARJEL, is actively trying to plug the holes in the French gambling borders, but the figures indicate they are only having limited success. Many large online gambling companies took an early view that they could not operate successfully within these constraints and have not sought out licences. Those that have entered or remained in the market have had some success with poker. In contrast sports’ betting has been predictably challenging. Hopes for change are pinned on a promised review (and perhaps subsequent reviews), however, there is little encouraging to report so far.”
- VAT is 19.6% on the remuneration for operators in France.
An advisory committee was also created although this took longer than anticipated and was only just launched recently. The French Minister of Budget Jean-Francois Copé set up the advisory committee called the Comite Consultatif des Jeux (CCJ) for the implementation of the monitoring policy responsible for games and gambling. It is aimed at concentrating on four aspects – compulsive gambling, transparency and integrity of operations, prevention of criminal activities and the sustainable development of various sports networks.
The CCJ also centralises all information from regulators and operators. The committee is made up of a panel of 19 members and is chaired by a member of parliament. It is headed by Francois Trucy, a senator who contributed significantly to the online gaming law of May 2010. Jean-Francois Lamour is vice- president.
the opeRatoRs The overall French gaming market generated €36bn in 2009 GGR of which €16.7bn was from casinos, €8.9bn from lotteries, €8.6bn from horse betting, €0.7bn from sports betting and just €1bn from online gaming
Before the market was legalised the online the fRench GaminG maRket
GeneRated €36Bn in 2009, with just €1Bn fRom the online GaminG industRy.
gaming market generated some €3 - €3.5bn in annual GGR of which two thirds was illegal. During the first month of legalisation some 1.2 million French chose to gamble on licensed sites.
The problem is illegal operating also still exists and it is estimated that the loss in turnover for 2011 could be around €450m due to illegal sites. France’s total turnover could reach €1.8bn if completely legal. Meanwhile the estimations say the total loss of tax turnover this year could reach €34m.
A host of gambling companies such as Austria’s Bwin, UK’s Partygaming and privately held Mangas Gaming and Pokerstar all applied for licences initially. During that
first month 17 licences were awarded to 11 companies which were registered by the French government to conduct online betting on sports and horse racing and poker.
These were: FDJ, PMU, Iliad Gaming, Sajoo, Betclic, Beturf, BES SS, Everest Gaming, France Pari, SPS Betting France and Table 14. Online poker licences were awarded from June 28 and began operating at the beginning of July.
Just seven months after France opened its online market and as of December last year there were 48 licences issued to 35 operators of which 15 were for sports, 25 for poker and eight for horse racing. There are currently 2.6 million active player accounts and some 500,000 new accounts each week.
The ARJEL reports that nearly 2.9 million player accounts were opened on the sites of licensed operators in dot com sites but after seven months players have migrated en masses to the legal licensed accounts.
In 2009 the legal market for online gaming in France accounted for about a third of the market. Today it is now estimated to have an 80 per cent market share. The French online gaming market has shown the following figures:
• At the end of 2010 the online sports market represented some €450m with players
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