This week the French Parliament discussed a proposed bill that would end the state monopoly over online gambling in France.  The idea is to open up the market for online casinos, online sports betting, and online horse racing to private competition.  Although online casinos are legal in France services are only offered by two government run organizations.

Roughly 3 million French people gamble online at illegal online casinos and chose not to use the French services.  Opening up the French online gambling market would be worth billions of euros to the competition.  There is a lot of money to be made.  It is believed that France is strongly considering opening the market to private owned online casinos due to pressure from the European Union.

“We have chosen a middle way which I think is just and efficient, a controlled opening up of the market,” announced Budget Minister Eric Woerth to the French Parliament.

“I want to put an end to these parallel universes. I want to put an end to the jungle of illegal sites.”

Under current law, the only legal access that French gamblers have to online gambling action is offered by the two state owned operators PMU and Francaise des Jeux.  PMU offers action on horse racing and Francaise des Jeux offers action on lotteries and other action found at online casinos.

These two organizations are no small investment to the French.  Each year licensed cafes and racing tracks has brought the government 5 billion euros off of online gambling.