France refused to merge its player's pool with other countries

The rejection to merge players’ pools together implies that players from France won’t have a chance to play poker online with colleagues from other countries. Right now according to the law, accepted in 2011, the French may only play in those poker rooms that are licensed in “fr” zone.

ARJEL - the authority that regulates gambling service in France - has recently tried to convince the government to make amendments to the Digital Technology Act and enable the French to play online poker with colleagues from other European countries.

Initially, everything went smoothly: the prime minister of France - Emmanuel Macron - expressed his readiness to collaborate with ARJEL’s head - Charles Coppolani - with a view to solve the problem as soon as possible. He gave a comment on the decision in one of his interviews:

“Right now we together with Charles Coppolani are working at the issue to make amendments to the Digital Technology Act. We assume, that the problem can be solved pretty soon”.

It was estimated that the French pool, following the amendment ,will join the pools of other countries with the same data security standards. It was also presumed that the subsidiary would be controlled severely in order to operate correspondingly to the French rules.

In the end the National Assembly refused to accept the idea of the merger.

It should also be noted that this wasn’t the first attempt to expand the French gambling market. In 2013 Jean François Villette promoted an idea to unite payers’ pools. However, his attempt either didn’t go off.

Probably, the reason of the government of France rejects the merger offer can be put down to the lack of familiarity with the aims of ARJEL. The speech of the French deputy, Razzy Hammadi, proves this:

“I’m against the union as it will lead to irreversible effects. Online poker has turned into a monster that ‘devours’ markets one after another. You have to accept the fact that poker has become quite old-fashioned”.

ARJEL financial performance

According to the earnings report 2015 published by ARJEL earlier this week, prices paid for the participation in tournaments increase however the cash games turnover declines 14% which is $3,65 billion. Total revenues from online poker has also decreased at 4% and comprised $252 million. The number of players has dropped down at the same percentage.

The only ornament to the general state of things was the earnings report for the sport bets. Revenues have increased at 30% up to $1,56 billion.

For conclusion

Nevertheless, the fact that the National Assembly rejected the idea of the merger cannot explain all the troubles of online poker. High taxes also undermine the poker gambling service in France. It should be recalled that France stays the only country in the world that imposes tax on each hand played. Thus, the total tax stake in online poker service reached 33%. 

This is what forces gambling operators to set high rake backs and offer such special offers and bonuses that fall behind the ones from the rest of the European countries. That’s why the rejection to merge the pools basically means that the future of online poker in France is uncertain.