A lot of people hate the French, but I don’t. To me, they’re just too silly to hate. I mean, look at that outrageously snooty accent (and don’t tell me Pepe le Pew doesn’t crack you up), their ridiculous idea of how to ruin pancakes, their women with unshaved pitts, and of course their willingness to surrender to anyone who gives them a tough time. Indeed, hating the French is like hating the handicapped or that cousin of yours who just doesn’t seem quite right. It’s not their fault they are French; they were born that way.

Therefore, I didn’t really think much of it when I heard about one of the amendments proposed by the French government in their new gambling legislation that will take effect next year. It’s just the French government being silly again. After all, they do all kinds of silly things, such as not allowing free speech. In this case, the amendment states that once the new gambling laws take effect, all online casinos with French customers must cancel the accounts of those customers and ask them to re-register.

Yes, you read that correctly. The reason is the same as most instances where big government decides to make a decision for someone else: to make it more “fair.” You see, with the new gambling laws in France, more companies will want to start operating in France. It’s unfair to them that other online casinos already have French customers. Therefore, the casinos must drop their existing French customers and ask them to re-register, though they will not be allowed to offer any incentive to register once again with the same company. That would make them susceptible to other casinos swooping in and registering them instead. Gee, do you think lobbyists had anything to do with this amendment? Hmm…

This would be like if I opened a new gym in town and told Bally’s, LA Fitness, and all the other existing gyms that they had to get rid of all of their customers because it’s unfair that they have them and I don’t. Then, since Bally’s can’t offer them a special deal to re-sign with them, I convince them to join my gym instead. Yeah, that sounds fair to me!

Some have speculated that the amendment may be used to protect French monopolies Francaise des Jeux and Pari Mutuel Urbain, who were excited by the EU ruling that monopolies are allowed if the government deems it in the public’s best interest. Big government attacking private enterprise for its own benefit? Who saw that one coming?

* Since I wrote so many bad things about the French, let me say something good to balance it out: France, thank you for Sophie Marceau.

As the French government has set to legalize and regulate online gambling in the country, they have run into a few stumbling blocks. Provisions in their bill that would restrict online gambling to online casinos located in France have met resistance from the European Union. Other provisions were in violation of various European laws. France responded by doing what France does best: surrendering. France capitulated to the demands of the EU and removed the contested provisions.

The provision requiring online casinos to have fiscal correspondence within France was scrapped, much to the delight of overseas casinos and much to the chagrin of French government officials that love collecting taxes. There are still some provisions that are being challenged, such as limits on fund transfers and the question on whether or not sports betting will be legal.

Despite any conflicts with the EU, experts believe that a vote on online gambling will occur early next year and licenses for online casinos could be given out as early as May of 2010. It would be a sad day if France, which isn’t all that big on freedom, legalizes online gambling before the United States. If that happens, should we give them the Statue of Liberty back? After all, France isn’t in favor of freedom of speech and has laws about what you can name things. Yet they may allow their people the freedom to spend their money online however they want before America does. It’s a sad, sad day.

The new French revolution is at hand. As of January 2010, the French government will be regulating and taxing online gambling. The government will see their share of 2% of each pot. An earlier version of the tax saw the French government receiving 2% of player stakes, but was changed after an outcry from the online gambling industry, stressing such a tax would make their games uncompetitive.

“We are all very glad that we were consulted by the French government and that our views were taken seriously. Although the set up is not ideal – we want to be able to offer French players the possibility to play against players from other countries, especially for tournament games – the hope is that the legislation will evolve with time,”

The French government hopes to pocket somewhere in the neighborhood of 30% of all profits from the online gaming industry in France. The new revisions will allow for more competition in the marketplace, which will hopefully generate more interest and greater profits for both parties.