SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
France’s online casino regulatory development will continue in the new year, but a Budget is desperately needed by gambling stakeholders.
With Paris’s gaming clubs forced to close on 31 December due to Michel Barnier’s government being brought down over MPs’ rejection of the country’s 2025 Budget, the establishments’ employees are currently “partially unemployed” and the government has agreed to pay them 60% of their salaries.
The larger operators have agreed to contribute the remaining 40% of their staff’s wages for a few more months, but the near-term future for the clubs remains deeply uncertain.
The French government returns to official duty on 13 January and the clubs, which generated €120m in GGR during the past 12 months and €10m in taxes to local budgets and €40m for the state, are hoping that a new Budget can be voted through in Q1.
Hands are tied
Sébastien Leclercq, CEO of Circus Casino France, told French media that the Ministries of the Interior and Labour had been “receptive” to the clubs’ needs and “tried to help” as much as they could, but without the legal framework provided by the Budget they were unable to do more.
In the meantime, the clubs will continue to feel the unforeseen impact of the political chaos that has enveloped France since President Macron’s decision to call elections in the summer.
The next set of parliamentary elections is scheduled for July 2025, if Macron dissolves parliament, but another confidence vote could be called before then if his opponents get enough support and, should centrist PM François Bayrou’s government lose it, the French president could be forced to form a third government in barely a year.
Regarding the online casino regulatory project, working groups focused on consumer protection, the public health aspects of legalisation and the potential economic impact of iCasino on France’s land-based casinos are expected to continue meeting. However, until a Budget is agreed and voted through, the uncertainty will continue.
