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France’s powerful casino lobby continues to flex its muscles, calling into question if online casino games will ever be regulated in the country without its explicit involvement and approval.
Late last month, hopes were dashed that online casinos games would finally be regulated in France after that lobby loudly protested a budget amendment that attempted to un-ban the sector.
Hoping to revive the plan, the government has launched a three-month consultation in its place.
At the time, Grégory Rabuel, the head of trade association Casinos de France, told local media that it could lead to “the closure of 30 percent of our establishments. This will make us lose players. Why travel 40 or 50 kilometers in the provinces to go to the casinos when you can have it in your hand.”
Rabuel took the helm of his organisation in July, with the specific personal mandate of increasing Casinos de France’s sway with local authorities.
Local governments joined the fray after his comments, with more than 100 mayors writing a joint letter to national newspaper Le Figaro.
The mayors who penned the letter wrote, in part: “Mr. Prime Minister, do you want to destroy 15,000 non-relocatable jobs in our municipalities? Of course not. However, if online casinos are authorised in France under the conditions provided by the government, this will amount to allowing large platforms to flood the public space with massive and aggressive advertising and to take over the market.”
The mayors also wrote that in some towns tax revenues from casinos make up half of the budget.
“The opening of online casinos will generate a distortion of competition to the detriment of local physical activity, employment in our municipalities and the tax revenues that fuel them.”
They asked for a consultation with land-based casinos, arguing “it is possible to create a secure framework for the opening of online casinos, which could benefit public and local finances, in particular by drawing on the expertise of physical casino operators”.
However, when the idea was floated in 2020 for regulating online casino games like Belgium or Switzerland, where internet licences are only available to land-based casinos, the newly formed National Gaming Authority (ANJ) shot it down.
In Switzerland and Belgium, each online casino licence is linked to or operated directly by a land-based casino.
France remains the last mainland country in Europe to have an unregulated online casino market.
Last December, trade group the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) said that the unregulated market was deeply harmful for French players, “who have no legal recourse nor minimum protections, such as self-exclusion, when they use them”.
At the time, it was reported that Française des Jeux (FDJ) was in negotiations to be given an exclusive licence for online casino games.
This time around, it is reported that the FDJ wants exclusive rights to online gaming for the first few years after the market launches.
The formerly state-owned operator, which is still partially backed by the government, is in the process of buying online gambling giant Kindred, which has a large global online casino presence.
The FDJ did not return a request for comment by the time of publication.
