Charles Coppolani, the new President of French online gaming regulator ARJEL, blamed the continuing slide of the French online poker market on Europe’s financial crisis, but also on a cooling of interest in the online game.
Speaking with the French financial newspaper Les Échos, Coppolani feels the market for online poker in the country has matured.
The “first element” in the decline, Coppolani says is the European financial crisis, but added that poker “has difficulty recruiting new players” and that the game is too complicated for a “rather young audience.”
“The fad is over,” he stated. “Basically, the online poker market may be mature.”
The French online poker market has fallen by around 15 percent in the last two years. Some have advocated France allowing player bases to be shared with other jurisdictions, but French lawmakers have shot down that idea. The country has also been criticized for overtaxing online sites.
Coppolani says he plans to focus on non-French licensed operators targeting the market.
“Player protection is an ongoing priority,” he said.
According to ARJEL, in the first quarter of 2014, 12 percent fewer new online poker accounts were created than in 2013 while the number of active accounts has fallen from 299,000 to 263,000.
Cash poker games fell by 19 percent during the first quarter of 2014 and have had a total 28 percent drop in two years.
Tournaments did bring in 407 million euros ($562million) in 2014, up from 375 million euros in 2013, but revenues from cash games dropped from a total of 1.476 million euros ($2.04million) to almost 1.2 million euros during the first three months of 2014.
