France ponders…

The great news for online casino companies is that France is changing its laws for online gambling. The National Assembly voted in favour of opening up the industry to online companies that are located outside the country.

The new law means that companies can apply for licenses to operate inside France and this will be of benefit financially to the state. It is a blow however for the current state run online gambling sites, but the competition will benefit players as well.

The law may mean companies that moved to Gibraltar for the lower tax rates will be excluded. This is a fairly high percentage of companies. The tax rate in Gibraltar is currently 1.5% and this was the reason that many companies moved.

The new law is still to be made official and it did receive a negative response from the Senate. They may vote to alter the law to deal with their concerns which means they may vote against the legislation.

While we wait for the outcome there is clear evidence that several countries are looking at their online gambling laws and moving to change them. This is a step in the right direction and French Lawmakers may be heading the same way as their Spanish and Italian counterparts. The US is another that is considering a move on their existing laws too.

In the not so distant future the laws may mean that players are free to play at the online casino of their choice without any of the restrictions that some countries currently impose.