France Working on Online Gambling Permits

June 10, 2008

France has announced that they will be starting to issue their authorizations for online gambling operators. The authorizations will be good for the second half of 2009 as they have now agreed with the European Union to comply with their wishes.

They were fighting the EU against opening up their borders to online gambling operators, but eventually gave in. By doing so they are now in compliance with the EU and they are regulating an industry that will bring in billions of dollars of revenue for their country.

According to Budget Minister Eric Woerth, they had met with Internal Markets Commissioner to discuss how they might be able to avoid court action over their online gambling restriction. They say that by opening their borders and issuing the authorizations they are able to do just that.

Brussels had told France that they were to allow online gambling or they were going to be taken to the European Court of Justice. They say that they are simply being realistic and beginning a controlled opening of their borders.

The country currently has two monopolies and they will open both slowly. The EU authorities say that they will wait to see what the details are before they suspend legal proceedings.




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