France wants to legalise online casinos next year, bringing its rules into line with most EU countries, but addiction specialists and real-world casino professionals are opposed to the plan.
Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s administration has submitted an amendment to its 2025 budget plan – currently under debate in parliament – to legalise online casinos.
The government argues that France and Cyprus are the only two EU member states where online casinos remain illegal.
France allows online betting, but online casino-game gambling has been banned, with previous governments arguing that the risk of addiction is too great.
Poker, which is played in casinos and allowed online, is the exception because it is deemed to rely more on a player’s skill than on sheer luck.
There is already a growing illegal online casino market in France, which the government believes generates up to 1.5 billion euros every year, or roughly 10 percent of all the sector’s income.
By legalising, and regulating, online casinos the government believes it can “limit the impact of online games on the health of consumers”, it said.
It would also be able to tax them to the tune of 55.6 percent of gross revenues.
Europe’s largest casino opens in Cyprus
‘Castrophic’ consequences
The plan has been met with strong opposition.
(with AFP)
Read more on RFI English
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