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Poker.co.uk - Poker News Archive
Monday 16th March 2009 France To License Online Betting
In France, Budget Minister Eric Woerth has announced that the nation is on a path to opening up its gambling market to foreign competition and will begin granting online betting licenses in 2010.
The move is an attempt to stem illegal gambling in the nation and safeguard the billions in tax revenues that are currently being lost overseas.
Woerth stated that the gambling market in France would be expanded to adapt ‘to Internet reality’ and help France ‘get out of an unsustainable situation in which the State is losing a growing part of the betting market’. His plans are a response to a 2007 European Union demand to end state gambling monopolies in order to comply with the bloc’s competition rules, which carried with it the threat of a lawsuit.
According to a report from The New York Times, France takes in around $6.3 billion a year in tax from the gambling industry, which includes online gambling, casinos, horseracing and lotteries. Woerth’s draft plan is set to be presented to the Cabinet at the end of the month and includes a levy of about 7.5 percent on online sportsbetting and horseracing wagers alongside a two percent tariff Internet poker wagers.
The European Gaming And Betting Association, an industry group for online bookmakers and casinos, has pushed the European Union’s executive arm, the European Commission, to pressure France to open its market. Pari Mutuel Urbain (PMU) currently holds the monopoly on horseracing wagers in France and reported annual revenue of $11.77 billion last year, the same as the State-owned lotteries and sportsbetting monopoly La Francaise Des Jeux. Woerth revealed that 25,000 unlawful websites in France representing 75 percent of the market take in around $8.85 billion a year.
'Rather than banning 25,000 websites, we'd rather give licenses to those who will respect public and social order,' said Woerth.
Source: OnlineCasinoNews
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