French Restrictions at Online Casinos
The new French regulations have quite a few foes right now, not the least of
which are the French poker gamblers. Online casino gambling, betting, and poker
groups have strongly protested the newly liberalized French regulations because
they still do not adhere to the standards of the EU policies according to the
European Commission. Despite the lack of approval on these regulations, however,
the French government has proceeded ahead with licensing betting and poker sites
for operation within France; the online casinos are a whole different story
right now. French players though are not pleased that as a part of the French
regulations they are limited to only playing with other French gamblers through
these sites.
PokerStars has just announced that the online casino poker giant has completely
blocked French IP addresses and accounts from the main PokerStars sites and will
instead route interested French players to a PokerStars.fr gambling site as a
way to better comply with the French licensing rules and requirements. This
though means that poker players are only able to access, see, and interact with
other French poker players on the site. Traditionally internet poker, like the
online casino gambling industry on the whole, is a very social game that allows
players to pit their skills against players from all over the world.
This is simply not the case with the way that the French regulations currently
restrict and license the offshore online casinos. For that reason French players
are facing smaller tournaments and poker games as well as limited access to many
of the international promotions and features inherent to the PokerStars internet
poker site. The decision shows that although PokerStars will rock the boat in
the US market, the site is prepared to tow the line with France until possible
new regulations are launched. |