The news was confirmed by the Minister of Budget, Antoine Saint-Martin.
France.- Following the controversy among physical casinos regarding the news that the French government was considering legalizing online casinos next year, it has finally been revealed that the initiative will not proceed.
As reported by international media, the Budget Minister, Antoine Saint-Martin, explained this Saturday that the government's plan to include an amendment in this regard in the state Budget project for 2025 has been discarded.
“I believe there needs to be coordination with other potentially affected ministerial departments, I think we should first work among ourselves,” the minister acknowledged, recalling that the Government wanted to approve this authorization to regulate and control online gambling, which is already practiced irregularly with entities located abroad.
It is worth noting that online casinos remain illegal in France despite the regulation of sports betting and online poker. The national regulator, the ANJ, recently announced a campaign against unlicensed operators, seeking to clarify to the public that the sector is illegal.
The government pointed out that the lack of a regulated online casino segment in France had led to a strong illegal offer estimated to raise between EUR748m and EUR1.500m.
The government considered that the regulation of online casinos could generate EUR1.000m. According to the proposed wording that has already been discarded, online casino operators would have paid 27 percent of the gross gaming revenue. The total tax rate in the vertical would have been 55.6 percent.
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The physical casinos body Casinos de France had expressed opposition to the measure and had requested that physical casino operators be given three years of exclusivity in the online casino market. Moreover, they claimed that a competitive market would cause the government to lose approximately EUR450m in tax revenues from physical casinos.
