Unsurprisingly the potential launch of France’s regulated casino market was central to discussions at the AFJEL annual conference.
Reporting for SBCNews, Jake Pollard detailed that there was a focus on responsible gambling, licensing and combatting the illegal market as France’s igaming industry gathered this week for the annual conference organised by its trade body AFJEL.
Speaking at the event, Nicolas Béraud, CEO of French market leader Betclic and President of AFJEL, emphasised his belief that amidst the growth of the illegal market, the “status quo is no longer tenable”, with licensed operators simply handicapped and unable to offer a key product to consumers.
When questioned on whether regulation would bring the illegal market into a regulated environment, Béraud said he was unsure “if it was denial; the topic is not whether it should open, the market is already open”.
He added that French players can find an online casino site on Google in minutes and “play without even realising it’s an illegal site”. He also made the point that with an estimated four million players already active and revenues of €2bn, the illegal market in France is already “the size of a mature market”.
“We honestly don’t know if problem gambling rates have gotten worse in recent years, but the four million playing on illegal sites should be brought into a legal setting. There is no one better than online operators at monitoring activity and detecting problem gamblers,” added Béraud.
Furthermore, providing analysis on the future of iCasino regulation, Isabelle Falque-Pierottin, President of France’s gambling regulator the Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ), stated that there is a real balance to be struck in terms of the future of regulation.
“There are 1.4 million problem and 400,000 excessive gamblers (in France), so what would be the impact if we add addictive products on top?” The ANJ boss also asked whether regulation would dry out the illegal market. “It will certainly help, but the benefit is not so obvious.”
She also detailed the potential impact regulation could have on land-based casinos and that regulating the vertical “would not be on the margins of an existing market, it is as important, if not more significant than 2010,” when the country legislated online sports betting and poker.
Anders Dorph, CEO of Spillemyndigheden, Denmark’s Gambling Authority, stated that the most important part of fighting illegal gambling “is to make sure you have a legal offer that gives the opportunity to have a sound legal market,” so that legal operators can compete effectively.
Dorph added that “DNS blocking illegal pages (is) like hunting rabbits”, but since Denmark has been doing it, there have been “13 times less illegal sites, so it definitely helps”.
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