The government is still considering regulating online casinos in 2025.
France.- The French government announced that it will open a six-month consultation on proposals to regulate online casino games in France. The government had announced plans to open a regulated and competitive market in 2025, but backtracked following criticism from local authorities and operators of physical casinos.
The Minister of Budget, Laurent Saint-Martin, held a meeting with stakeholders from the casino sectors, horse racing, and online gambling, as well as with mayors' associations last Wednesday. From this meeting stemmed the announcement of a formal consultation period that will last up to six months.
The first three months of the consultation period will focus on whether the regulation of online casinos in France should be implemented, while the following three months will focus on what form the regulation should take if it proceeds. The government will also establish three working groups to assess the issue.
At last Wednesday's meeting, the president of Casinos de France, Grégory Rabuel, and the vice president Fabrice Paire, reiterated calls for physical casinos to be granted an exclusivity period during which they would operate online casinos through “digital mirrors” of physical offerings. They argue that allowing free competition would result in a repeat of the sports betting market, where three brands control 80 percent of the sector.
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The stance of the CDF has been supported by local mayors, as well as by the horse racing sector, which also fears that regulated online casino games could affect their business. For its part, Française des Jeux, which recently acquired the Swedish online gambling operator Kindred and would likely have a strong position in a regulated casino market, also expressed concern and warned that such games could be more addictive.
Meanwhile, the trade body for online gambling operators, AFJEL, continued to warn about the scale of the unlicensed online casino market. It said it was open to the idea of creating a compensation fund that would be distributed among the communes of France, but both mayors and operators of physical casinos raised doubts about the viability of such a measure.
Another surprise at Wednesday's meeting was the attendance of the British Betting and Gaming Council (BGC), along with major British betting operators like bet365. By offering a view of the British experience with online casinos, they argued that regulating online casinos in France could actually benefit the physical casino sector by increasing volume and awareness.
