Posted on: October 23, 2024, 10:12h.
Last updated on: October 23, 2024, 10:12h.
The French government under Prime Minister Michel Bernier’s control has proposed authorizing online casino gambling to reduce the country’s budget deficit.
Less than two months after Bernier assumed office, The Republicans’ leader directed his party constituents and other pro-government supporters in Parliament to develop ways to reduce France’s budget deficit from its current level of more than 6% to below 5%. During legislative discussions of the nation’s 2025 budget draft, the majority in the 577-person National Assembly and 348-person Senate suggested liberalizing iGaming as a possible workaround.
France remains an outlier among the 27 member European States in continuing to prohibit online slot machines and most table games. Cyprus is the only other EU member that limits casino gambling to in-person play.
France, however, in 2010 passed a law that created a regulatory framework for online poker, online sports betting, and online parimutuel wagering on horse racing. Such online betting is regulated by the National Gaming Authority.
Budget Benefits
Pro-government backers of the iGaming amendment to the 2025 Finance Bill Draft say licensing online casino websites and apps would provide an immediate influx of revenue to help bridge the country’s deficit. A lofty 55.6% effective tax rate on gross online casino revenue would further benefit the effort.
This opening is the result of aligning the gaming framework with our main European neighbors,” a government statement on the iGaming proposal read.
If the budget amendment passes Parliament and is signed by President Emmanuel Macron, the French government would directly benefit from iGaming by collecting half of the proposed 55.6% tax. The remaining tax revenue would be directed to social security programs.
France is already a major gaming market with 203 casinos and betting shops, seven cardroom clubs in Paris, and 235 parimutuel racetracks and off-track betting parlors. The government says France is also home to vast illegal gambling, much of which is carried out online.
The National Gaming Authority estimates that illegal gambling operations generated between €748m and €1.5 billion (US$806 million to $1.62 billion) in revenue last year. The central government’s gaming regulator believes about half of that play came online through illegal operations from offshore businesses. Nearly 80% of illegal online play is projected to come from problem gamblers or those at risk of gambling irresponsibly.
“While one in two consumers of illegal offers is unaware of their illicit nature, playing these games is not without risk: there is no approval of the games used, making cheating possible, winnings may not be paid, minors are not protected, bets are not supervised, and the theft of personal data is frequent,” the iGaming amendment detailed.
Gaming Expansion Opposition
France’s Addiction Federation was quick to oppose the iGaming pitch.
While the number of problem gamblers is already increasing, this reform of considerable magnitude cannot be adopted hastily, without consultation with addiction stakeholders and a debate on its health consequences. Legalizing online casinos, by a simple amendment, is not an acceptable process in view of the issues at stake,” said Catherine Delorme, president of the Addiction Federation.
Delorme said iGaming combines numerous risk factors for addiction, including a player’s ability to make numerous bets quickly and to do so in private.
France’s brick-and-mortar casinos and gaming businesses also fought back on the online gambling proposal. The regulated industry voiced claims that iGaming would lead to a “20-30% drop” in gross gaming revenue and result in numerous casino closures that would cost thousands of jobs.
“There will be catastrophic consequences,” concluded Gregory Rabuel, president of France’s largest casino union.
