Saturday, September 13th, 2008
The interest for Online Poker in France seem to continue booming without stop. A number of high profil trials made the french public aware of onlinne poker or Poker en Ligne as it is called in french. The French has earlier been a bit sceptical about online gaming and the french government is doing what they can to stop gambling on the Internet. They fail desperately though and it seems no matter what they do, the interest for poker keep increasing in France. Google trends can show you that the amount of searches for poker related keywords in France the last year is several times bigger than 2005 or 2006. It is reasonable to believe that the traffic levels will stabilize on a level as it has done in other booming countries.
Wednesday, March 5th, 2008
After the controversial smoking ban law was put into effect this year, Enghien-les-Bains, the first french casino, shows a serious fall of its sales turnover since the beginning of the year. Its financial loss represents already 1,5 million euros.
In order to restitue it’s revenue, the casino issued a complaint to the Higher Comission of Gaming in order to get new tables of Hold’em poker and slot machines.
Concerning the question of tobacco near the players, some see this application like a relief. Nevertheless, the legislatioin is very unpopular among players, and the majority disaproves this law. Apparently, tobacco brings a better stimulation to the play and even, some players claim, it helps them stay awake. Dissatisfaction regarding the ban are numerous and increasing.
A woman even suggests installing machines under the open air. Another player explains how this ban has made him enjoy much more the online action at his favorite online poker site- Pokerloco.com.
Due to this restrictioin, more and more casinos in France are being emptied. Would this be their end and a new era for online poker ?
We leave it up to you to answer…
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Guest Columnist – Francois Samuel
