Gambling Companies Face French Legal Action

888, bWin, SportingBet, and Unibet are being sued in French courts for offering online casino games to French citizens. A french casino group and trade union is behind the lawsuits because they claim that offering casino games is in contravention of current gambling legislation which prohibits licensed gambling operators from offering online casino games to French citizens. These companies were restricted to offering only sportsbetting to French citizens under the law.

They’ve accused the foreign-based operators of depriving the French government of tax revenue that would have been generated by French citizens playing the online casino games. The lawsuit is only asking for €1 in damages, €30,000 to cover their legal costs, and publication of the verdict in the French daily newspapers, in order to influence French citizens that want to gamble online.

France continues to liberalize their online gambling laws, but more needs to be done to allow foreign operators to compete with casinos in France. France needs to fully license foreign operators and permit them to offer sportsbetting, casino games, poker, bingo, and other games.