After much speculation in the last few months, the government of France has moved to withdraw its progress of the iCasino market.
Changes were set to come to the market after proposed amendments to the 2025 budget were shelved, pushing back plans for a regulated french online casino market.
The decision was confirmed on Sunday by Budget Minister Laurent Saint-Martin, who underlined that increased consultations were needed to avoid the negative impacts and job losses warned by regional stakeholders.
The Minister commented on Radio J this weekend: “There was talk that the government would submit an amendment. This is no longer the case. I believe we need to work among ourselves first.
“I am very vigilant about this issue. We must not make mistakes. We must ensure that it doesn’t harm certain stakeholders, especially land-based casinos.”
As a result, France will maintain its 2010 gambling laws, upholding a fragmented marketplace that regulates sports betting, horseracing, and poker, but prohibits online casino activities.
The plans were originally introduced by new Prime Minister Michel Barnier, who sought to boost the country’s GDP as it navigates economic headwinds.
Economic upside would largely be fuelled by a 27.8% levy on online casinos’ gross gaming revenue as well as an increase in taxes to 55% on the country’s whole gambling industry.
Nonetheless, it received significant backlash from the land-based sector, specifically the Casinos de France, the trade body representing the country’s 200 land-based casinos.
Grégory Rabuel, President of CdF and CEO of Barrière Groupe, was damning about the bill, speaking to Les Echos, he described the move as “a totally ill-considered decision, without any consultation with stakeholders”.
As part of its JADE proposal, the CdF urged the regulatory body to allow physical casinos to have a period of three-year exclusivity to operate digital casinos.
Rabuel issued the following warning: “Opening up online casinos to competition will lead to a 20-30% drop in GGR for land-based casinos and the closure of 30% of establishments. This will have catastrophic consequences, particularly in social terms: it is estimated that 15,000 jobs will be lost. More generally, this is tantamount to signing the death warrant for land-based casinos.”
