Whether as an exclusive license holder for online gambling, or in some other role, Groupe FDJ is expected to play a prominent part in online gambling in France, CDC Gaming Reports wrote December 19.
France’s Autorité Nationale des Jeux’s (ANJ), the national gambling regulator, recently reported on the growing size of illegal online gambling. There has been speculation that Groupe FDJ may be given a monopoly for online gaming, although nothing official yet out of ANJ.
There is no doubt that Group FDJ has been talking with the government over such a license, possibly as a pilot program with a three or five year life to see what results.
The CDCcolumn quoted FDJ CEO Stéphane Pallez on a possible two-stage process, with the initial program being experimental.
So far, FDJ has the online field without rivals, despite attempts during the last six months by land-based casinos to pass online casino regulations—without success.
France’s national audit office (Cour des Comptes) has also broached the issue of regulating online gaming, which would, it said, possibly mean the end of the land-based casinos’ monopoly on table games and slot machines, “(and) is a matter of concern for casinos, local authorities and FDJ.”
Under consideration is an open market, or a market limited to existing brick and mortar operators, an option that would take considerable work to align it with existing legal requirements of the European Court Justice.
FDJ has also gotten in trouble with the European Commission for its privatization from a government monopoly to a private company. It paid €380 million to the French government for a 25-year lottery and sports betting monopoly, an amount that caused competitors to complain to the commission, which said it doubted the amount “corresponds to market conditions.”
The audit office also noted that FDJ’s online lottery games were very similar to online slot machines, although their payout ratio is considerably less.
