Bienvenue aux Online Gaming!

Fine wine, sumptuous cuisine and a healthy ration of online gaming excitement awaits French players.

The French parliament is set to move ahead with its regulation of foreign gaming operators this October.

The bill which will limit foreign gaming activity to sports betting and poker is scheduled for an October 7 hearing.

Tapping into the market
While the UK market shows signs of levelling out, the French appetite for online gaming continues to grow at a rate of knots.

Online Casino Reports France.

Estimations show that over online gaming turnover for 2010 will reach over €670 million, with that figure climbing over €1 billion in 2011.

Declining trends set to be reversed
Both William Hill (-26%) and 888 Holdings (-57%) recorded significant declines in revenue recently, but they are keen to enter the lavish French market.

There are an estimated 25,000 gaming sites operating beneath the radar in France. A mere quarter of them are in French which means that thousands are based abroad.

The European Commission has implemented steps to overhaul EU gaming markets. Italy now allows online gaming and France too is making history.

Portugal holds firm
While the EU is increasingly liberalizing the gaming industry, Portugal fended off a Bwin Interactive challenge against the state-run sports-betting monopoly.

Now the state run monopoly controls Bwin in Portugal. As early as March 2009 the EU admitted a deadlock in a unanimous European agreement on online gaming policy.

It is now up to individual EU states to determine their own online gaming policies, provided that they are in general compliance with overall EU policy.

Strict rules
The French have been known for proposing strict rules on taxation of online gaming activity. A 2% tax on poker was met with a 7.5% tax proposal on sports betting.

Concerns over the profitability of increased foreign competition have some people in France a little concerned. But the job-creation prospects of online gaming far outweigh the risks.

EGBA - an industry group - also opposes the strict restrictions on what specific types of games and payouts to expect. Only Scratchcards, lottery, and random chance games remain under monopoly.