Tuesday 24th March 2009 Intralot Planning French Bid
Intralot, the Athens-based developer and supplier of gaming and transaction processing systems, could be about to enter the French market by bidding for an online sports and horseracing betting licence.
According to a report from the Reuters news service, the Chief Executive Officer for the world's second largest lottery provider, Constantinos Antonopoulos, told Greek financial daily Imerisia recently that his firm was planning to bid for a French operating license.
'For Intralot, liberalisation of the online betting market in Europe is a big opportunity as our company has the structure, know-how and necessary presence to take advantage of the opportunities,” said Antonopoulos.
French Budget Minister Eric Woerth revealed a draft plan last week that would see the nation begin to open its gambling market to foreign competition with the first set of online betting licenses expected in 2010. He 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 also 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.
Source: OnlineCasinoNews
Poker news index
Poker Homepage
|
POKER NEWS >> Intralot Planning French Bid
