France and Legalisation of Online Poker
France is doing something I have advocated for a long time, which is a smart thing to do: legalizing online poker in the country and taxing it.
According to gambling newsletter PokerPages, France’s budget minister Eric Woerth shared the tax structure which will accompany a bill to open up online gambling and online casino games to compete with France’s state monopolies (Francais des Jeux and Pari-Mutuel Urbain (PMU)). Woerth said he foresees a 2% tax on online poker, and a 7.5% tax on sports and horse racing. The proposed gaming bill will be presented to ministers at the end of March or the beginning of April according to the Budget Minister. It is likely to be voted on in the parliament and the senate before the 2009 summer recess, PokerPages reported. Woerth added that the opening up of the online gambling market should come into effect Jan. 1, 2010. The change in French policy towards online gaming comes largely from pressure from the European Commission, prompted chiefly by objections raised by the sportsbetting sector.
online poker should, of course, be legal in all sovereign nations of this world. And if it is legal, it can be taxed, which adds much needed revenue to countries that are financially struggling, and even those that are not. Everyone wins: the governments win, because that get to tax yet another commodity, and we, the poker players win, because we get to enjoy our game free of legal hassle.