French casino operators are ready to consult with the government on all the key issues following withdrawal of online casino amendment from the Budget 2025.
Casinos de France, the trade body representing the country’s 200 French land-based casinos, has told Gaming&Co that it is looking forward to discussing online casino regulations when it meets with the government next week, and reiterated its call for the country’s physical casinos to be given priority to operate the vertical digitally.
Philippe Bon, CEO of CdF, said that the organisation was also willing to study the different regulatory formats that could be proposed by members of AFJEL, the French online gaming association, but that there had been no contact between the two groups.
French exception
The regulation of online casino as part of an open market model has long been called for by AFJEL, but Bon said any such project must take into account France’s very specific land-based casino environment.
“People say France is the exception online, but it is also an exception offline with the number of (physical) casinos on its territory and the deep links they have with each department and commune they operate in. Within that context, it is not illogical that online casino is not regulated, or, if it is legalised, that it should be according to a particular model,” he said.
For its part, CDF has long called for its JADE model of iCasino regulation to be implemented and Bon added that it was “a precursor model, with the principle of tying a reasoned opening of online casinos to land-based establishments”.
Complex solutions will take time
CdF is “open to dialogue with legislators as a first step”, but Bon notes that there are also “doubts as to how quickly an operational solution can be implemented in 2025” and that “technical solutions are complex and tax revenues will take time”.
Other revenue-raising options include the “possibility of operating roulette in the gaming clubs (cercles de jeux) that are based in Paris, which would create returns within the next 12 months”, he added.
With France withdrawing its amendment to regulate online casino on Sunday, the scene is set for a period of intense lobbying and discussions between stakeholders and the government. The withdrawal followed concerted pressure from Casinos de France and more than 100 mayors outlining their opposition to the measure in Le Figaro.
On Monday, Fabrice Paire, board member of France’s second casino operator Groupe Partouche and VP of CdF, told French media that “online casino regulation should not be disconnected from land-based casinos, we know it will be toxic or even fatal for some of them”.
Asked if CdF stood against change and modernisation, Paire said it was “safeguarding a physical business, not resistant to change”, and that the topic should be discussed calmly and without taking hasty decisions.
CdF’s JADE project has called for licences to only be issued to French land-based casinos and that online portals should replicate land-based offers. Paire said it has “promoted an intelligent model”, which was adopted by Belgium “more than 10 years ago and that Switzerland adopted five years ago”.
A ‘dominant triopoly’
He added that the country’s online sports betting and poker regulations of 2010 have led to an online “triopoly, with three operators sharing 90% of the online poker market and 80% of the sports betting market”. The triopoly’s “leader has 200 employees, do we want to favour 200 employees or a sector with 45,000?”, Paire said.
Nicolas Béraud, CEO of France’s leading online sportsbook Betclic and President of AFJEL, recently told France Info that regulating online casino was “a major issue of general interest” and bringing the estimated four million users said to be playing on illegal sites into a regulated orbit will protect them.
“Additional protection measures may be possible, but we need a legal framework to be able to act,” said Béraud. He added that “the impact (of regulation) will not be significant because the market already exists, in an illegal form.”
Responding to those comments, CdF’s Paire said: “We hear AFJEL and Mr Béraud tell us it is of general interest to open the market, no it is a private interest.”