The government held a meeting to take feedback from stakeholders.

France.- The government has held a meeting with gambling operators and other stakeholders to sound them out on its plan to regulate online casino in France. The move came after the government put back plans to legalise and regulate the vertical amid criticism from the land-based casino sector.

Attending the meeting on Wednesday were land-based casino operators, horse racing stakeholders and online gambling operators. MPs and mayoral associations were also present, along with a surprise appearance by the British Betting and Gaming Council and mayor British operators such as Bet 365.

The government had planned to regulate online casino as early as next year to bring in much-needed tax revenue. However, the land-based casino trade body Casinos de France warned that the move could put many land-based operators out of business. More than 100 local mayors also wrote to the government to oppose the move. 

The government argues that the lack of a regulated online casino segment in France has resulted in a strong illegal offer that’s estimated to rake in between €748m and €1.5bn a year. Meanwhile, it needs to boost tax revenue to reduce the country’s debt and the public deficit, which stands at 5.5 per cent of GDP. While the government aims to increase tax on the gambling sector in general, it thinks the regulation of online casino could bring in €1bn. 

According to the wording of the withdrawn amendment, online casino operators would have paid 27 per cent on gross gaming revenue. The total tax rate on the vertical would have been 55.6 per cent. However, Casinos de France claims that an open competitive online casino market would cause the government to lose approximately €450m in tax revenue from land-based casinos.

The government intended to open a competitive online casino market to all commercial operators but Casinos de France is calling for existing land-based casino operators to be given a period of exclusivity. The body’s vice president, Fabrice Paire, who is on the board of Partouche, has argued that the regulation of online poker in 2010 harmed existing operators since it allowed former grey-market operators to legally enter the market immediately with the benefit of their existing databases of customers. 

Some are in favour of allowing members of AFJEL to provide digital products for land-based casinos, allowing them to enter the market without having to develop the operations themselves. The opinion of the lottery operator FDJ is likely to be influential, and it is likely to become a major player following its recent acquisition of the Swedish online gambling operator Kindred. Perhaps surprisingly, it expressed concerns about online casino at Wednesday’s meeting.

France is one of the only countries in Western Europe and the only country in the EU other than Cyrpus where online casino remains illegal. That’s despite the regulation of online sports betting and poker. The national regulator, the ANJ, recently announced a campaign against unlicensed operators, seeking to clarify to the public that the sector is illegal.