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On the 24th June, PokerStars ceased to offer its services to French customers. This is another effect of the newly intorduced French regulations on online gambling.
Earlier this month, gaming licenses have been granted [3] by the French Authority of Regulation of Online Games (ARJEL) to sites like Everest Poker, BetClic and Bwin. In the meantime PokerStars, Microgaming, 888 and Party Gaming were denied licenses, despite the fact that these companies are among the largest ones in the poker industry.
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At this moment French players are unable to play poker on PokerStars main site and they can read the following message upon logging in: “All money in PokerStars accounts is 100% safe and is available for withdrawal. You can choose to cash out now if you prefer.”
There is an alternate solution for the French players who would still like to continue playing at PokerStars: they can play in play money at Pokerstars.fr. A big restriction is, though, that the players will only be able to compete against their fellow countrymen. Though real money play is not allowed at the moment, French players are still able to access freerolls to the French Poker Series events.
Since the changes have been made, traffic has dropped spectacularly on the PokerStars, showing a 10% decrease compared to statistics made before the 24th June.