Online Poker Tournaments in Danger after the Transactions Ban

In early December, the French legislature passed two amendments highly antagonistic to online poker. The first, emulating the recent U.S. legislation, makes it illegal for French banks to handle transactions with online gambling companies. The second requires information providers such as AOL and Club Internet, plus portal sites and Websites with a French presence, to notify visitors when links lead to sites not approved by the French government. They must also advise such visitors of the risks involved in the games at such sites.

For players in several markets, most notably the United States, the future of online poker is murky at best. For others - such as Italy and China - the outlook for the foreseeable future is nothing but full steam ahead.

Toward the end of 2006, the French investigative agency Renseignements Generaux questioned Patrick Bruel, the well-known French singer and actor who holds a WSOP bracelet and serves as commentator for the World Poker Tour in France. Bruel was asked about his relationship with Winamax and WAM poker and asked to change his advertising for Winamax.

Customers resident in France or accessing our servers from France will no longer be able to access our real money gaming service.

The announcement went on to say that Partys French clients would be allowed to cash out their funds promptly with no problem. (At least these clients fared better than many Americans holding accounts at Neteller.com, including myself, who have recently been unable to cash out at all, and whose money remains in a state of limbo as I write this column. In my case, the sum involved was a small peer-to-peer transfer in no way related to any online gambling site. Nevertheless, since writing about this in my last column, I have not received the money, nor have I heard anything further concerning its status.)

Mitch Garber, CEO of Party, clearly finds the current regulatory environment in France too unfavourable for further expansion there. Among other things, according to some reports, French authorities recently called some of his associates in for interviews about the legality of the companys French marketing operations. Hardly a friendly gesture.