France has committed its efforts to secure first online poker shared liquidity agreements by mid-2017, as ARJEL President Charles Coppolani has revealed in a recent report by the country’s online gambling regulator.
France regulated its iGaming market back in 2010. However, online poker has failed to establish itself as a major revenue generator since the adoption of the country’s existing regulatory framework. That course of events has been attributed to multiple different reasons over the years. Soon after taking his post at ARJEL, Mr. Coppolani himself commented that the continued declines registered in online poker could be due to the fact that the game was a bit “out of fashion.”
There is, however, another more realistic factor that may have influenced poker’s growth negatively. Many would agree that France is among the most heavily taxed jurisdictions with regulated iGaming. Operators with activities in the French market are taxed at the equivalent of 37% on gross gaming revenue. It is also important to note that every online cash game pot is taxed at 2% in addition to the standard rake imposed in compliance with EU regulations. This makes the local market not particularly profitable for both players and operators and therefore not so attractive.
As seen in ARJEL’s recently published report for the three months ended December 31, 2016, online poker in France had its 21st consecutive quarter of decline. Although the downward trend has extended into the final quarter of 2016, it can be said that the negative growth was rather insignificant in terms of cash games stakes. Those dropped mere 0.4% year-on-year. However, tournament poker had harsh time during the fourth quarter of 2016, with tournament fees sliding 2%.
It can be said that shared liquidity has been seen by ARJEL as the possible savior of the country’s ring-fenced online poker market. Last summer, the French gambling law was amended so as to give the regulator power to negotiate shared liquidity agreements with other regulated jurisdictions. As 2016 progressed, it became clear that France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and the UK have been discussing a possible merger of their player pools.
Technical standards were set towards the end of the year and a promise was made that the first shared liquidity agreements will be in place by mid-2017. That promise sounded a bit too ambitious at the time, but it all shows that gambling regulators from the above-mentioned five countries may have remained firm in their intentions.
Several hints have emerged from France over the past few weeks that shared liquidity may indeed be happening. In the first place, local poker operator Winamax has informed on its LinkedIn page that it has been looking for Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and English-speaking professionals. This may mean that it is gearing to open up its website for players from the respective countries.
In the second place, it was earlier this week when PokerStars announced that it would restrict its .fr site to France-based players only. Although there may be multiple other reasons for the online poker room’s decision, it may well be seen as a sign that changes may be taking place in the local market and in the markets of the other four countries mentioned in this article.
