October 22 is the date set for a meeting between the President of ARJEL, Charles Coppolani and a delegation of several poker players. During the meeting, the main subject for discussion will be the future growth of the poker industry in France.
Coppolani is said to be the initiator of the meeting and the main reason was the article, that has been recently published in a website. Its title – “ARJEL and the Imaginary World of Mr. Coppalini: It’s Time to Act, Now!”, clearly shows that the poker players are unhappy with the current condition of the poker industry.
The article says that ARJEL has an extremely negative impact on the local industry and urgent measures must be taken so further downfall is avoided. According to a great majority of professional poker players, drastic reforms are unavoidable.
The French regulator has been accused of neglecting the poker industry and failing in providing the poker players with an environment where they can feel safe while playing their favorite game.
The author of the article also reminds about the first interview of Coppolani as a President of ARJEL. He claimed that “poker is not so popular anymore”.
Obviously, there was no other excuse for the rapid downgrade of the poker industry, caused by the unwise actions and decisions, taken by the regulator.
Coppolani has been a head of ARJEL for less than an year. He has taken over the reigns of the company at the beginning of the year. Jean-Fraçois Vilotte, a founder of ARJEL, used to be its President but he gave up two years before his mandate is over.
The French poker community representatives are convinced that Coppolani is to blame for the bad condition of the industry. The only thing he did towards stabilizing it was organizing several unsuccessful campaigns and taking a number of inefficient actions.
Despite the meeting organized, the local players are not too optimistic. What’s more, they are sure that this meeting won’t bring any benefits to the industry. The comments, made by the players, only came to approve of that attitude.
The poker forums are flooded with various negative comments and the general opinion is that neither an industry growth nor even a slight improvement should be expected.
Some people were hopeful though. They considered the upcoming meeting to be a major step in establishing stable relations with the regulator, being able to work in collaboration and solving all kinds of gaming issues more effectively.
The former President of ARJEL commented that in order to become thriving, some of the things, the French poker industry needs, is reduced taxes and a better marketing strategy. The proactive approach and the flexibility of both – the regulators and the gaming providers are also considered to be essential factors for improving the local poker industry.
