French Gambling Leaders Set The Stakes For Online Casino Battle

January 22, 2025
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French gambling interests all agree that the nation is firmly on a path to open its online casino market, but they remain divided on when and how it should happen.
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French gambling interests all agree that the nation is firmly on a path to open its online casino market, but they remain divided on when and how it should happen.

France looked set to end the country’s prohibition on online casino games in Autumn 2024 when ministers inserted a surprise budget amendment that would have removed the ban.

A few months later and not only was that amendment defeated, the government that proposed it had collapsed.

Despite ongoing political chaos in France, gambling industry figures from across the divide believe that the country is fixed on a path to open the market.

“The market should and will open,” predicted Diane Mullenex, a partner with law firm Pinsent Masons.

“What will drive the opening is a balance between needing more money and curbing an illegal market.”

France’s new coalition government still has to craft its own version of the budget that torpedoed its predecessor. However, it is unlikely to tolerate a second attempt to use it as a vehicle to un-ban online casinos after the first attempt prompted a fierce reaction from land-based casinos.

Clément Martin Saint Léon, the head of Casinos France trade group, said his members are not opposed to opening the market, under certain conditions.

“To open the market, to advertise [online casinos], we believe that this message sent to the French market will destabilise [land-based casinos]," he said.

Martin Saint Léon was speaking alongside Mullenex at a briefing hosted by Gaming in France and Gaming and Co, on the fringes of the ICE conference in Barcelona.

Casinos France said its research suggests that opening online casinos would result in a 15-25 percent loss in revenue for the country’s around 200 land-based venues.

That imperils the money French casinos pay to their host cities for cultural projects and the 45,000 people they employ, Martin Saint Léon said.

“We are not saying we don’t have to open the market. We are not against progress, but you need to consider the financial, taxation and employment [perspectives] of land-based casinos,” he said.

By way of compromise, as they see it, Casinos France has suggested French casinos be given a period of exclusive access to the online casino market, once it is legalised.

That suggestion would have formed part of a consultation into opening the market announced by the government of Michel Barnier in the wake of withdrawing its budget amendment, but days later the entire administration was drummed out of power.

Representatives of France’s online betting industry say they hope the consultation process will be revived.

“We strongly believe in opening and creating this framework for online casino,” said Nicolas Beraud, the CEO of Betclic and head of trade group AFJEL.

Beraud pointed to France’s expansive online casino black market, which gambling regulator ANJ has estimated to be worth as much as €1.5bn ($1.6bn).

“I hope that the new government will continue this work. To find a balanced compromise,” said Beraud.

Although they may not be fully aligned on their hopes for online casino liberalisation, Beraud and Martin Saint Léon share frustration with France’s gambling taxes.

Both land-based and online operators are taxed well over 50 percent of gross gambling revenue, and there remains a strong likelihood that a cash-strapped French government will seek to raise rates even further in its forthcoming budget.

“The problem is that most of the operators cannot be profitable in France. If we would add casino games it could balance the revenue. And it would allow new operators and small operators to develop on the French market, which right now is impossible,” said Beraud.

Calling the current structure “a mess”, Martin Saint Léon said that the government should redesign gambling taxes from the ground up.

“I think we have to harmonise things,” he said.

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