The French government led by Prime Minister Michel Barnier has proposed amendments to the country’s budget plan, including the legalization of online casinos next year. It’s worth noting that France and Cyprus are the only EU member states where online casinos are still illegal.
According to the authorities, granting online casinos a legal status will help solve several problems at once:
- Replenish the country’s budget through a tax of 55.6% of the gross revenue of casino operators
- Limit the negative impact of online gambling on the health of users
- Reduce the number of illegal gambling operators
Today according to government data, the annual turnover of illegal online casinos is more than $1.6 billion, which is about 10% of revenues from the entire gambling sector.
Despite the ban on online casinos in France online betting and poker are legalized. Bookmakers have previously stated that they want to add gambling to the list of their offers, but can not do it due to the legislative ban.
Representatives of land-based casinos did not appreciate the government’s initiative and said that the consequences for their business would be “catastrophic” and would cost a loss of 20-30% of gross revenue.
Gregory Rabuel, head of the association of casinos in France, in an interview with the newspaper Les Echos, said that the legalization of online casinos will lead to “the closure of 30% of land-based establishments, as well as at risk of dismissal will be 15,000 employees”.
However, supporters of this initiative argue that the online casino market is already large enough, and its legalization will not affect the competition towards land-based casinos.
More information: Google News.
