French gambling laws become closer but there is still concern.

We have reported previously about the way in which France was preparing their gambling laws and the results are getting closer but it comes as no surprise to us that not everything is as simple as it might be and a lot of people are watching intently. The State gambling monopoly Francaise des Jeux has reportedly  now teamed up with land based casino group Barriere to release an online poker room; nothing wrong with that you might think but Francaise des jeux already has a poker software agreement with the US company Cyberarts so it may be reasonable to assume that some corporate lawyers will be examining the wording in detail. It is believed that the French government may have encouraged the link up to take advantage of new legislation. Certainly the European Gambling and Betting Association and the UK’s Remote Gaming Association (RGA) are not happy. The partnership has a very large base of consumers which watchers consider does not provide fair free and open markets for EU member states. The RGA has even threatened legal action. On the positive side the French Senate has revoked a decision made last year that would have required  current operators such as Bwin to close down their operations until such time as French licenses were issued. Senator Francoise Trucy said “The issue of the closure of French accounts is not in question, operators will be able to carry on working with French players between the law being passed and licenses being handed out” He did add however that once licenses had been issued the operators would have to transfer all their French online customers to a .fr site. You just know that when France does something about legislation it will favour the French.