Betclic Everest CEO Calls for Online Casino Regulation in France

The CEO of Betclic Everest has called for changes to French gambling laws, as the country’s unregulated online marketplace causes problems for operators within the country. Betclic are the country’s leading independent operator, and CEO Isabelle Andres has called for regulation to not only help with competition, but bring in tax revenue too.

Currently, French internet casinos are very much second fiddle to their land based counterparts, who exert a lot of pressure on the government to maintain the status quo. As such, Andres acknowledges that any change will take time.

Explaining her ideas, Andres said that any legislation change would be “a long term effort but there is something which I find hard to believe politicians and parliamentarians have not thought about: when it comes to protecting consumers, the only way to do that is to control the market. The market doesn’t disappear (whether it’s regulated or not), it’s obvious and a reality. If you want to protect the consumer, you don’t leave the door open for the illegal sites. The other clear issue is that when you control the market you pick up the tax revenues and I believe it’s a very valid argument”.

Betclic Everest have recently recovered their standing in France, and have been looking to new markets, including foreign and mobile casinos, as they look to expand. With mobile casinos gaining a lot of traction across the world in recent times, this is the perfect time for companies to expand their operations.

With the current situation in France exposing French gamblers to a whole host of unscrupulous, unlicensed gambling sites, there is the worry that problem gamblers could find themselves in a whole heap of trouble. As such, any regulation of the market is sure to be a good thing, so long as they don’t go down the same route as Spain.