Online casino in France: six-month consultation announced
The government is still considering regulating online casino in 2025.
France.- The government has announced a six-month consultation on proposals to regulate online casino gambling in France. The government had announced plans to open a competitive regulated casino market in 2025 but backtracked after criticism from local authorities and land-based casino operators.
Budget minister Laurent Saint-Martin held a meeting with stakeholders from the casino, horse racing and online gambling sectors along with mayoral associations last Wednesday. The outcome is the announcement of a formal consultation period to last up to six months.
The first three months of the consultation period will focus on whether the regulation of online casino in France should happen at all, while the next three months will focus on what form regulation should take if it does go ahead. The government will also establish three working groups to evaluate the issue.
At the meeting last Wednesday, Casinos de France president Grégory Rabuel and vice president Fabrice Paire repeated calls for land-based casinos to be granted a period of exclusivity during which they would operate online casino via “digital mirrors” of land-based offerings. They argue that allowing free competition would result in a repeat of the sports betting market, where three brands control 80 per cent of the sector.
CDF’s stance has been backed by local mayors as well as the horse racing sector, which also fears that regulated online casino gambling could impact its business. More surprisingly, Française des Jeux, which recently acquired the Swedish online gambling operator Kindred and would be likely to have a strong position in a regulated casino market, also expressed concerns, warning that online casino games can be more addictive.
Meanwhile, the online gambling operator trade body AFJEL continued to warn about the scale of the unlicensed online casino market. It said that it was open to the idea of creating a compensation fund to be distributed to France’s communes, but both mayors and land-based casino operators raised doubts about the feasibility of such a move.
Another surprise at Wednesday’s meeting was the attendance of the British Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), along with major British betting operators such as bet365. Providing a view from Britain’s experience of online casino, they argued that the regulation of online casino in France could actually benefit the land-based casino sector by boosting volume and awareness.
France’s gambling regulator, the ANJ, has said that it is planning to study other countries’ online casino markets to assess how they have impacted the economy and public health.
