Online Gambling Sites In France
In 2001, the government awarded monopolies over gambling sites in France by giving Pari Mutuel Urbain (PMU) exclusive rights to offer online betting on horseracing, while Francaise des Jeux (FDJ) is given the same deal for sports betting. France blocks any foreign operators attempting to provide competitive services to residents from across the. France is mostly a gambling-friendly nation with laws that permit most forms of gambling online and in the real world. Current laws restrict French betting sites from offering casino games, but sports betting, poker and horse racing betting are all legal and regulated.
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Gambling in France is very popular and many traditional forms of betting activity actually have their origins in the country.
Online betting and gambling in France is legal and the countries residents are free to choose from a small pool of licensed providers. Check out the best French betting sites below and also the key rules and regulations regarding gambling in the country.
Best & Licensed Betting Site For France:
Key Facts: Online Gambling In France
- Majority of gambling activities are entirely legal and fully regulated within the nation.
- All land based gambling legal in licenced establishment.
- Online betting & gambling legal with small pool of licenced operators.
- Illegal to use online sites without licence.
- Most non licenced sites blocked by internet service providers.
Gambling Legislation & Law Timeline
The above key points provide a good overview of the legal situation regarding gambling as it stands today in France. The following legislation timeline, meanwhile, helps to explain exactly how that situation came to be:
1836 – Gambling Largely Banned
In 1836 the French government passed an act which banned all forms of gambling apart from horse racing betting. In spite of this act, gambling continued to thrive in the country through illegal gambling dens.
1891 – Further Prohibitive Legislation
Whilst essentially already illegal under the 1836 act, the French parliament passed further legislation to specifically ban all forms of fixed-odds betting and non-horse racing pool betting in 1891. This was largely in order to protect the French invented and state run pari-mutuel horse racing betting industry within the nation.
1920s and 1930s – Various Forms of Gambling Legalised
Through the 1920s and 1930s, many different forms of gambling were legalised in France as long as they were undertaken through state owned providers. The two most notable such providers created were Française des Jeux (FDJ) for betting games and lotteries and Pari Mutuel Urbain (PMU) for horse race betting.
1980s and 1990s – Further Relaxation of Restrictions
The land-based gambling industry in France continued to be legalised and opened up through the 1980s and 1990s, to the point that gambling became essentially wholly legal. Notably, too, in 1987 the legal gambling age was lowered from 21 to 18.
2001 – First Online Gambling Legalised
It was in 2001 that online gambling was first legalised in France but once again this was with the proviso that it be provided by the state run FDJ and PMU organisations. Those companies flourished and a huge amount of their income was and is committed to charitable causes within France.
2010 – French Gambling Act
Following pressure from the EU, who opposed France’s state monopoly over gambling, French authorities passed the French Gambling Act (Law No 2010-476) in 2010. That act made online poker, sports betting and horse racing betting legal in France and set out the framework for licensing and taxation of the industry.
A regulatory body called ARJEL (the ‘Regulatory Authority for Online Games’) was also created by the act. Casino games, however, were not included under the umbrella of the act as they were deemed too addictive to legalise online.
Are Players Taxed On Winnings?
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The above provides all the information you require regarding the legality of gambling in France. Taxation, however, also plays a part in shaping the industry and should be briefly discussed.
Gambling in general, and online poker and sports betting in particular, are quite heavily taxed in France. This makes it difficult for operators to turn a profit in the country and by extension can have an impact on the size of winnings and payouts available to punters. On top of this, punters are also liable for tax at a rate of 2% on poker pots and of 8.5% on all sports betting winnings.
Recommended Deposit Methods
With the exception of online casino games, online gambling is fully legal and regulated within France. Punters using fully licensed sites, therefore, can freely pick and choose their favoured deposit methods.
Even if punters use an overseas based unlicensed provider, in fact, they are individually not doing anything illegal in doing so and as such can still confidently select any method they prefer. Depositing via debit or credit card, then, is often the chosen method due to the speed, ease and security which this method offers.
A survey in France investigating the gambling habits of its citizens has found a drop in the number of people gambling but also an increase in problem gambling. The survey was conducted nationwide and is the latest edition of such a study since 2014 and the third overall of its kind. Over 10,000 people responded to the survey when they were set questions in 2019.
The study recently carried out in France showed some worrying trends. The incidence of problem gambling in France has gone up and will likely be a key area the newly established ANJ will wish to tackle in the future. ©skeeze/Pixabay
The responses were generated from participants that were aged over 18 and were, therefore, of legal gambling age in the country.
Based on the results of the survey, 47.2% of French citizens in this age bracket had gambled over the previous year. Overall, men were more likely than women to have gambled with 50.4% of males, and 44.2% of females admitting to having done so during this period.
These figures represent a drop of about 10% from the results of the 2014 survey. Previously, the French people had reported a 57.2% rate of gambling participation over a 12-month period, so the drop has been significant.
Despite this seemingly high number of individuals who have gambled during the past year, the number of people who participate in gambling regularly is much lower. Overall, 28.6% of individuals surveyed said that they would gamble every week and only 1.2% admitted to gambling daily.
The most popular way to gamble in France was the lottery, for which 65% of those who admitted to gambling had bought a ticket in the past year. Whilst this was the most popular way to gamble by a large margin, it has still become less popular since 2014. In the previous survey, it was found that 72.3% of respondents had bought lottery tickets.
The next most popular way to wager money was on instant win tickets that can be bought in a variety of shops. These scratch cards were bought by 56.9% of gamblers in France over the past 12 months.
The gamblers in France have shown a marked drop in the participation rates of many forms of gambling during the previous five years. For example, online poker and horse racing betting both experienced significantly reduced numbers during this period.
Only one vertical demonstrated growth since the last edition of the survey. This was sports betting, which increased its share of the gambling community from 6.6% to 11%.
How Much do French Gamblers Spend?
Overall, the study found that the average French gambler spends around €72 per year. Of those that participate in gambling, just 10% were found to spend more than €1,000 per year on the habit.
The data did show a strong and worrying trend, however. From the study, it can be seen that those who gamble the most, also make up the vast majority of the amount that is spent gambling in France. Of those who gamble, just 10% account for 82.8% of the total amount of money spent in the market.
The top 1% of this group was responsible for 49% of the money spent on such activities. In other words, nearly half of all the money spent gambling in France came from just 1% of those participating! This high spending was put down to an increased amount of spending on types of regulated online gambling like sports betting and online casino. The critical vertical was unsurprisingly sports betting, in which the customer spend was significantly higher.
Gambling Addiction in France
Additionally, the study unearthed that there has been a dramatic increase in the incidence of gambling problems in France or the risk of developing such issues. The survey included a section that generates a predictor for an individual’s risk of developing gambling-related problems in the future.
This section of the survey used the Canadian Problem Gambling Index (CPGI) and from these questions, researchers estimated that some 4.4% of gamblers in France show signs of demonstrating gambling-related issues in the near future. This is a worrying statistic, as the same figure was just 3.8% in the last survey.
The survey also unearthed more trends that seem to demonstrate higher incidences of gambling addiction in the country. The number of players that are deemed to have fully-fledged gambling problems was estimated to be 1.6%. In 2014, this figure was just 0.8% so this increase is dramatic and worrying.
The study showed that of the 1 million estimated at-risk individuals, some 370,000 are problem gamblers. These 1 million players are estimated to make up nearly 40% of the total money spent on gambling in France.
This group is predominantly made up of young males who come from working-class backgrounds and have lower standards of education as well as income. Often, those who are most at risk of gambling-related issues are unemployed.
Sports betting seems to be the most problematic vertical when it comes to gambling addiction. This method of betting is three times more likely to be used by those at risk of developing gambling problems than the lottery.
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This study was carried out by the gambling research group in France (Observatoire des Jeux) as well as the Government’s public health body and the group responsible for the study of addictive substances. These bodies will carry out another study at the end of this year with the aim of improving the understanding of gamblers’ behavior in the online market.
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In France, a new regulatory authority for gambling has recently been launched, L’Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) that will oversee all forms of gambling in the country in the future. Such research will allow the regulator to formulate and implement strategies to help reduce the incidence of problem gambling in France.