The Highest appeals court in France has overturned an appeals-court decision to ban Malta based company Zeturf from offering online gaming and betting on racehorses in France. This recent development adds to the pressure France is under from the European Commission to end the French state gambling monopoly. Online poker and gambling experts hope that this means an end to the monopoly, which kept online poker swites from penetrating the French market.
Originally, Zeturf was ordered by the court to suspend all operations in France or face daily fines in excess of $68,000. This was in response to a complaint made by Pari Mutuel Urbain (PMU), who is a monopoly operator of betting on horse racing, sports, lotteries and other forms of gambling in France.
Under European Union rules, limits to competition, even those "stemming from limits on gaming as a special or exclusive right, cannot be justified," the court said Wednesday with announcement of its decision. Such restrictions can be used only to block gambling companies from "criminal or fraudulent" activities by "channeling them through controllable avenues," the Paris-based court said in its ruling, dated Tuesday.
The judges who heard the case at the Cour de Cassation also commented that the appeals court had not sought to discover whether the French government was upholding the monopoly simply to increase state revenues. The decision sends the case against Zeturf back to a Paris appeals court for a rehearing. It could take up to a year for the case to come back to court.
Online poker, lotteries, sports betting, and online gaming are state-owned or state-supported monopolies in many EU countries. Government dependency on sizeable revenues from the monopolies has lead many legislators to create protectionist policies
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