France may pass a law authorising online gambling by end of 2009
French Budget Minister Eric Woerth has reportedly said a law authorising online gambling will probably be passed by the end of 2009.
The French government is yet to decide on how to tax the online companies, Woerth said. It is being said that the government currently gets €5bn from levies on private casino operators and a state-owned company with a monopoly on lotteries and sports betting.
The draft bill designed to open the gambling market to competition and legalise online betting was drawn up to comply with EU anti-monopoly rules.
According to another report, information portal Online Casino Topic reports that the owners of French online gambling sites are getting set to start fighting French opponents who do not want them to launch online casino and poker websites.
In a development being attributed to Patrick Partouche of the French casino company Partouche Group by a report from swisspoker.ch, it is being said that the company is moving ahead rapidly with a Gibraltar licence initiative. He has pointed out that there are many Internet gaming sites like Unibet and Bwin that are offering the French public online action regardless of the current law, which is in the process of being changed, citing EU law precedence. Consequently, he intends to position his enterprise to compete without awaiting the evolution of the slow French bureaucratic process to open the market.
