Online Gambling – New deadline for France: October 29th 2007

The European commission recently extended the deadline that it had originally given France to revise its online gambling legislation. The French government will now have until October 29th, 2007, to modify its laws and allow European online gambling operators to access the French market.

Reuters reported this information on August 28th, 2007, based on statements made by the spokesman for the Commissioner of the European Union's Internal Market, Oliver Drewes.

French online gambling is being targeted by the European commission for two reasons: the first concerns governmental measures to control the Internet, and the second involves the free market within the European Union.

Initially, the European Commission had requested that France revise a law before the end of August 2007 that would have required all Internet providers to post a preventative message informing users that they were about to enter a site that was unauthorized in France. Those providers who failed to comply would be fined 75,000€.

Before the same deadline, it was requested that France open its horseracing market to European gambling operators, or answer to European Court of Justice for violating article 49 of the European Treaty (free market in the service sector within the Union).

While the British government published it's "White List" at the beginning of August 2007, permitting certain operators to invest in the advertising sector of the UK market, the law for the prevention of delinquency in France will fine all media displaying ads for foreign online gambling operators a minimum of 30,000€ as of September 5.

The problem for online casino players in France is this: only two gambling operators are authorized by the French government to offer games on the Internet (PMU and Française des Jeux).

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