iPoker comes to France

The newly formed ARJEL have issued a license to Chilipoker, the first member of the iPoker network to receive one

The body in charge of French online gaming, ARJEL, recently granted Chilipoker a licence to run an online poker room in France. Chilipoker is a member of the iPoker network, one of the largest of the online poker networks and it is the first website which will operate on the French iPoker network.

The chief executive of Chiligaming, Alex Dreyfus, said, “Chilipoker is very proud to have been the first iPoker licensee in France and is working actively with Playtech to make iPoker France have the biggest liquidity. Because of our poker expertise and knowledge of the French market, Chilipoker will launch a B2B poker offering very soon.”

The chief executive of Playtech, Mor Weizer, said that he was “delighted” to announce the start of hte French iPoker network, “I am confident that it will develop to become one of the leading liquid networks in France. As the market expands in its regulated form, France has the potential to become a very substantial local market.”

It has not been an easy year for French online gamblers, in April the French Parliament passed a law which carefully regulates online gambling whereas before they were operating a state monopoly. As part of the new law ARJEL was formed and they have so far issued five licenses to online poker sites which include Chilipoker, Everest, PartyPoker, Bwin, BetClic, Winamax and PokerStars.

For each cash game pot and tournament buy-ins the companies will be taxed 2%, this will include all re-buys and add-ons. For cash pot games there is a €1 cap, however, tournaments do not have any cap. If it a cash pot game with no flop then there is also a tax, this includes when all players fold to the big blind.

Now these poker companies are facing a choice, they can either take the tax from their own profit margins or charge their customers by increasing the rake and the tournament fees. PokerStars decided to pass the tax onto their players, unsurprisingly this didn’t go down too well with their players, last Sunday evening they held a three hour long “strike”, a number of players sat down to cash game tables and then sat out the game which blocked the seats and prevented other players from joining the games. If you’re reading this in France you may wish to think carefully about which poker room you choose to play in.