France Not Ready for Online Casinos Yet

“Online gambling: is a controlled opening of the market still possible?” This question was discussed recently at length at the Maison de la Chimie in Paris. "The House of Chemistry" is an international conference center located near the National Assembly. The conference tackled other topics that related to internet gambling at casinos and in poker rooms in France. Discussion was also held on the effectiveness of blocking systems for illegal internet casinos as well as limitations and sanctions imposed to limit use of casinos and poker rooms to strictly French patrons.

It was suggested at the conference that the French government was not ready with solutions to prevent players from countries other than France from using online gambling sites which are not licensed by the French officially.

One of the delegates, Sebastien Proto who is Deputy Chief of Staff, in charge of State reform in the Budget Department of France confirmed that technical standards will be imposed for those who want a licence in the French jurisdiction. Future operators of online gambling companies in France will undergo a series of requirements to prove their operations are up to the French standards for sports betting, casino play, and poker activity. The French are still vague on how they expect to accomplish their goal of French only web gambling. Some speculate that the "Black List" type of restriction will be the normal route. This option was tried in Italy but did not lead to satisfactory results. Player wishing to play at illegal online gambling sites are able to do so with out much effort. Italian player quickly figured out how to set up proxy names based within offshore locations enabling transparent play at any casino or card room. Casinos were also easily made invisible to authorities by changing their banner page frequently again enabling play without detection. It looks like France will have it's work cut out for it when the time comes to allow internet gambling within their borders.