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Rakerace.com [3] released an article summarising the events of the past couple of months in France on the newly introduced regulation of online gambling. The subject has been discussed here as well, see the related posts below.
[4]
National level regulation for online poker and betting had been ’under construction’ for years in France when sports betting licences were finally released short before the football World Cup and online poker licences were also issued by 1 July 2010.
On 6 April 2010, the French parliament passed the resolution legalising online gambling, and the French gambling authority, ARJEL (Autorité de Régulation des Jeux En Ligne), accredited the poker companies during June. The newly introduced law limited online gambling to licensed gambling companies in France. A tax of 2% on all cash game pots and tournament buyins are to be paid for the state, significantly diminishing the profit and the promotions/marketing resources of the rooms previously working with an average rake of 5%.
Some of the licensed companies decided on paying the tax from their profit, while others raised their rakes, basically charging the taxes to the players. PokerStars.fr chose the way of redirecting its grown expenses almost entirely onto the players. Of course, this led to an enormous outcry from the community, who resorted to organising a boycott and successfully thwarted gameplay on the site. The result was PokerStars reducing the rake overall and dropping the 2%, max €1 rake on no-flop hands. Their cash game 6max-9max rake structure is currently 7,69%, max €3,5 (simplified), meaning an estimated 40-50% rise in rake, compared to PokerStars.com.
EverestPoker has been making great efforts to successfully position themselves with their .fr room, while they also have to strive to keep their .com room, now experiencing a 30-40% drop, competitive on the international market. The odds are in their favour, though, as the owner of the company, Mangas Gaming, rallied its French players in the EverestPoker.fr room and plans to do the same with its entire international network, uniting under EverestPoker.com. As opposed to PokerStars, Evererst Poker did not raise its rake significantly, but is thus forced to pay the taxes from its profits.
In principle, foreigners are allowed in the PokerStars.fr as well as in the EverestPoker.fr rooms but under the present circumstances (higher rake and/or lower rakeback, still shifting regulation, lower player count, excessive amount of red tape), it is not advised.
For the full article, visit rakerace.com [5]
Related posts:
Mangas Gaming Has Broken All Previous Records in France Since the Regulation [6]
PokerStars Introduces Restrictions on Online Poker in France [7]
French Players Paralyze Traffic at PokerStars.fr [8]
888 – French Licence Granted [9]