Across the world, online poker is played by millions of poker enthusiasts, both professional and amateurs. In most countries, online poker gaming is easily accessed and players face off against competitors from all over. Poker rooms that have shared liquidity in various countries offer the opportunity for players to take on foes from England, Australia, Asia and more. Just recently, the French Parliament decided to approve an amendment so that poker players of France can experience gaming against players from other regions.
Back in May, the French Senate decided to vote in favor of an amendment that was connected to the France digital bill. This would allow shared poker liquidity with other nations in Europe. It would take another four months before French Parliament would decide to pass the bill and allow French poker players to compete in a larger player pool. Francois Hollande, the French President, is expected to sign off on the measure within the coming weeks.
For some time now, the online poker industry of France has been having problems due to the ring-fenced market. This created an environment that was not attractive to players but the country did nothing to try and make changes, until now. Players called for the market to be made larger and include countries like Spain and Italy but these calls fell on deaf ears time and time again. Thankfully, progression has been made and now the French online poker market should see significant growth now that player pools will be much larger in size. Gambling tax revenues should only grow which will further be of benefit.
The digital bill that has been amended is known as the Projet de loi pour une Republique numerique and will also work to fight gambling addiction risks. Many amendments involving gambling will cover this topic to ensure that players are safe as they take part in the gambling activities. The amendment will also include regulation that will be created for eSports gaming. France does not currently have an eSports lottery licensing setup and will now try to work on one.
The bill states that once the Digital Republic Act and its implementing decrees are in force, they will excuse specific eSports contests from the general prohibition that is set on lotteries, if players are physically present during the competition.
Before being able to offer online poker, many countries have predicted they would earn high revenues which resulted in areas such as France and states in the US from not having shared player liquidity. However, you have to have the player base to be successful. Without a steady stream of players, you are left with low player numbers which will turn players away who want to compete.
Now, areas that are considering such legislation are already looking at shared player liquidity. Such states as Pennsylvania and California has mentioned shared liquidity with states that already do so such as Delaware and Nevada. Both Delaware and Nevada are part of an interstate online poker compact which allows them to offer online poker services to residents in the other state. This compact was created in early 2015 and remains open to other states who pass online poker gaming legislation.
However, New Jersey has decided not to share player pools and have remained successful. It seems you need to have the population in place to be able to build a solid player pool. States that do not, as well as smaller countries, may want to look at sharing liquidity from the very beginning to create a solid stream of players who will keep the online poker rooms busy even during off-peak times.