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French gambling minister seems to like the idea
Whether it's the attentions of the European Commission seeking to ensure free passage of goods and services, good commercial sense or even an altruistic motivation, the French minister for the Interior Michele Alliot-Marie appeared to be taking a more reasonable approach to online gambling in France this week.
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Forbes magazine reported that the minister wanted to liberalise online gambling, in order to allow French casinos "to be present in these new markets without lowering the level of vigilance that operators and the state must maintain on the quality and offering of games."
France is one country that enjoys a creaky state monopoly of the industry, thanks to the government-owned lottery Francaise des Jeux and the PMU betting organisation. Only the Francaise des Jeux and the PMU are currently allowed to operate online games of chance in France, which has led to pressure from European regulators concerned that international operators are being unfairly blocked from some markets. In July, European competition laws overturned a French ban on Maltese betting company Zeturf, a sign that frustrated foreign players were finally making themselves heard.
Francaise des Jeux and PMU have justified their stranglehold on the industry by claiming that gambling needs to be regulated and certified and that they are the bodies best able to do so.
In practice, it has given the state carte blanche to stifle competition in France, resulting in the high-profile and shocking arrests of executives from Austrian betting firm BWin last year (see previous InfoPowa reports).
The French may have embarked on a new course regarding the popular pastime. Recently, meetings have been held with European Commission representatives, and negotiations continue as reported in our earlier bulletins.
"The negative developments of last year, such as the arrests of the Bwin co-Chief Executives, have not been repeated," said SportingBet earlier this week, when gauging the improved situation in Europe.
"Indeed, it is symptomatic of the change in prevailing member state attitude that the French authorities, who initiated the arrests, spent mid-September discussing the liberalisation of its gambling regime with the European Commission."
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