Online poker operator PokerStars has started informing players that its .fr website will be available only to people residing in Mainland France or the country’s overseas territories from February 13, 2017. At present, PokerStars’ French website can be accessed by players from other European jurisdictions where regulations (or the lack of proper explicit regulations) allow this.
The world’s largest online poker operator cited the “constantly changing environment” as the main reason to limit its .fr service. Although PokerStars has justified most of its recent business decisions with the rapidly changing online gambling landscape, many believe that there is another likely reason for the soon-to-be-imposed restriction.
On the one hand, the fact that the .fr website admits players from other European jurisdictions makes it very attractive to sharks who can benefit from playing against recreational and less proficient players. According to industry insiders, PokerStars restricting its French website to France-based players only may be coming as the poker room’s attempt to direct such sharks to its larger .eu and .com pools.
On the other hand, the limitation may be seen as a necessary preparatory move for the upcoming creation of shared liquidity pools between several European regulated jurisdictions.
It can be said that France has become the shared liquidity initiator. Last summer, the country amended its existing gambling regulations to allow its gambling regulator – ARJEL – to negotiate shared liquidity agreements with counterparts from other ring-fenced online poker markets. Gambling authorities from France, Italy, Spain, the UK, and the recently regulated Portugal met in November to discuss technical standardization matters for the eventual establishment of such agreements and merger of player pools.
In January, Portugal submitted a technical standards framework to the European Commission. The paper is to be reviewed by European lawmakers for the next three months. Thus, the country will not be able to sign any shared liquidity agreements before April.
With regulators progressing toward the establishment of uniform technical and other necessary requirements, online poker operators, PokerStars included, may be preparing their ring-fenced pools for future shared liquidity opportunities.
It has become known recently that French online poker brand Winamax is hiring Portuguese-, Spanish-, Italian-, and English-speaking specialists, and this, too, may be interpreted as a hint at the possible creation of a larger international pool with players from the above countries.
It is important to note that neither operators, nor regulators have confirmed any of the above, so now, and for now, these are all mere guesses based on the recent developments on the European online poker scene.
