It's All About The Money

Published: Friday, March 02, 2007 Online-Casinos.com

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY

If the EU prevails, we'll need to tax the foreigners, says French presidential hopeful

The apparent intent of French authorities to exclude all competition not approved by the government in its bid to protect its own monopolistic gambling agencies like the Française des Jeux has been in the headlines this week, again raising the debate on EU states hampering the full and free access of services and trade from other EU states.

One politician with an eye on what the European Commission may do about France's exclusionary policies is presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy, who addressed the French Olympic Committee last week on the role of sport in French society and how to fund sports related bodies.

Showing a pragmatism for which the French are famous, Sarkozy said: "Should the financing of the Française des Jeux be put into question by developments in European regulation, there will be a need to tax the foreign games [groups] operating in France, in order to guarantee that the French sports movement receives the funds to which it is entitled."

For now, though the French authorities are becoming bolder in their attempts to pressurise foreign companies out of exploiting the French market, with the latest ploy being a request to "interview" executive representatives from a reported 20 online gambling companies.