French online gaming regulator ARJEL has announced that online poker playing is effectively disappearing.
According to Cardchat.com, ARJEL says that online poker, “Is a fad and that it’s ‘over,’ based on numbers indicating that active accounts continue to decline. In a public report issued by ARJEL President Charles Coppolani, who recently stepped into the position, poker was deemed to be ‘too complicated’ for younger players.”
Many factors contributed to France being in this state.
“It’s widely accepted that France’s woes to grow their poker market are plagued by bad decisions, including a lack of player liquidity, changing taxes to cripple players, and stifling the number of games offered,” the report notes.
The proof that this decline is a reality is the extreme loss of income.
The most shocking element of the report were the massive losses seen by poker operators in France. Last year’s report showed that sites lost €68 million ($88.12 million USD) and the year before that, the loss as a staggering €88 million ($114 million USD). As a percentage of gross gaming revenues, French gaming and sales taxes are 37 percent for online poker.
The one redeeming area that is attempting to offset the losses for France is their online tournaments. We’re told that online tournament play is actually up.
In fact, online tournament play has mitigated losses at the cash game tables. As it turns out, revenues for tournament fees have actually jumped 5 percent.
“It appears that those players frustrated by excessive taxes and a reduced player pool in cash games have turned their attention to tournament games,” Cardchat concludes.
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