France Keeps On Losing Gaming Operators due to High Taxes

ARJEL, the French regulatory body has just revoked online gaming licenses of SAjOO for casinos and online sportsbooks in France. The operator is part of the Amaury Group and has recently merged with bwin France.

The merger was carried out by two giant gaming groups in order to try and find an optimal solution for profits in draconian regulatory and fiscal regime under current French gambling laws. Read more on the matter in our (ARJEL and French Online Casino Players Demand Lower Gambling Taxes) article.

The highly challenging French regulatory and financial situation also caused 200% Poker SA to request the revocation of its ARJEL license. The online gaming site has been hibernating since early May 2011. The operator told ARJEL and France gambling news that if found it extremely difficult to develop and compete within the current stringent fiscal situation of the French market and had failed to produce the expected results.

However, other gambling operators and software companies are still regarding the French market as appealing and are looking for licenses in the country. Zeturf France Limited has recently been approved to operate online horserace betting software. Iliad Gaming also received a license from ARJEL for its Freebox online sports betting solutions.

Iliad Gaming has also been authorized to operate online poker sites in France in addition to online casino and online sports betting. This means things are not extremely difficult on the French gaming market and with the recent calls for government to change the taxing of the operators the situation could become even better.