Despite egamingreview claiming Betfair were over the line six weeks ago, the French government have drafted their new online betting legislation this week, with a specific prohibition for betting exchanges.
French government's new gambling law bans Betfair and all exchanges
The French government has effectively outlawed the online betting exchange Betfair after passing an amendment to new gambling laws. These are being closely watched by sports bodies in the UK which are lobbying the government to bring in similar regulations.
Under a surprise last-minute amendment, betting exchanges such as Betfair that allow punters to lay as well as place bets were excluded from the legislation in a move that the company described as "discriminatory".
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Passing the amendment, the French parliament also referred to a 2007 report from the British Gambling Commission that said 9.8% of punters using betting exchanges developed gambling addictions, compared to a rate of between one and three per cent among the general gambling population.
If that was the case - and Betfair have ridiculed the report as being of a meaningless sample size - then there would be over 200,000 problem gamblers from Betfair alone based on their number of accountholders. Somehow I don't think so. Try looking at pointless slot machines and casinos if you want the major cause of problem gambling.
Anyway, it looks like this battle will go via the EU and French law courts for a long, long time to come. The bookies making a move on Paris will be delighted!
French government's new gambling law bans Betfair and all exchanges
The French government has effectively outlawed the online betting exchange Betfair after passing an amendment to new gambling laws. These are being closely watched by sports bodies in the UK which are lobbying the government to bring in similar regulations.
Under a surprise last-minute amendment, betting exchanges such as Betfair that allow punters to lay as well as place bets were excluded from the legislation in a move that the company described as "discriminatory".
...
Passing the amendment, the French parliament also referred to a 2007 report from the British Gambling Commission that said 9.8% of punters using betting exchanges developed gambling addictions, compared to a rate of between one and three per cent among the general gambling population.
If that was the case - and Betfair have ridiculed the report as being of a meaningless sample size - then there would be over 200,000 problem gamblers from Betfair alone based on their number of accountholders. Somehow I don't think so. Try looking at pointless slot machines and casinos if you want the major cause of problem gambling.
Anyway, it looks like this battle will go via the EU and French law courts for a long, long time to come. The bookies making a move on Paris will be delighted!
Bit of a bummer. If trading worked out for me one of my ambitions would be to move to France with my girlfriend and trade from there. Hope Betair find a way through in the next 5 years or so.
ReplyDeleteonly means they can't advertise there, it hasn't made it a criminal offence for users based in the country.
ReplyDeleteThanks Scott, much better than what I first thought.
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