French poker players seem to be more inclined than players of other games to be early adopters of new technologies as 23.8% of the respondents use a smartphone or a tablet, whereas the percentage fell to 16% for people into sports or horse betting.
The use of new technologies also has some direct consequences on the way players behave within the poker market, as 47% of the interviewees seem to have found a way to go around the restrictions imposed by France's national gambling law.
Confirming what former France's regulator president Jean-François Vilotte told PokerNews about the market being threatened more by unlicensed websites than by a real decline of the sector, 23.5% of French players confessed to be playing exclusively on non-licensed sites, with an exact same percentage of them holding accounts both on licensed and unlicensed sites.
That data is even more significant if compared the data gathered about horse and sports betting, where the percentage of people choosing regulated sites for their games account for 73.8% and 65.3% of the total, respectively.
Among the most common reasons players are moving away from regulated sites is the lack of competitiveness of ARJEL-licensed sites and the limits currently imposed on the legal offer, as France forces online poker rooms to run only Texas hold'em and Omaha games.
As the French parliament recently ruled against the possibility of modifying current national gambling law to allow shared liquidity with Italy and Spain, France's regulator ARJEL decided to tackle the issue of grey operators by launching a new awareness campaign currently hitting French radio stations, national press and the Web.
Photo courtesy of fc05.deviantart.net
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By James Spillane, Rakeback.com Staff Writer
| Where Can I Play? | Legislation | Deposits & Cashouts | PokerStars | Do I Need a VPN? | Full Tilt |
| Rakeback.com recommends the rooms below for French online poker players – all the sites shown currently accept signups from France and offer either flat rakeback or a points based VIP program. |
rakeback rooms – where to play online poker in France? | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Poker room | traffic avg * | Rakeback | Bonus | segregated? |
| bwin Poker | 700 | Up to 25% | €500 | Yes – dot.fr playerpool |
| Combined PartyGaming Player Pool | PartyPoker.fr | |||
| PartyPoker | 700 | Up to 30% | €20 | Yes – dot.fr playerpool |
| Voted Softest Games | PartyPoker.fr | |||
| PKR | 50 | 30% Flat | €500 | Yes – dot.fr playerpool |
| 3D Avatars | PKR.fr | |||
| PokerStars | 1300 | Up to 74% | €500 | Yes – dot.fr playerpool |
| Highest Traffic | PokerStars.fr | |||
| Unibet | 550 | Up to 30% | €500 | Yes – dot.fr playerpool |
| Sportsbook Casual Players | iPoker.fr |
* For the latest traffic figures see PokerScout.com
France's Online Gambling Laws – is Poker Legal?Online poker is legal in France, regulated by ARJEL in 2009. However its players are segregated from other countries and operator taxes are partially passed onto players in the form of higher rake.
France Poker Deposit & Cashout Methods
E-wallets Skrill (formerly Moneybookers) and Neteller are preferred by many grinders as they avoid fees and taxes associated with banks and gambling transactions, and don't require you to share banking information with poker sites. |
| French Currency – Euro (EUR) |
Is France in the PokerStars.com Playerpool?
No. As shown in the table above French players are segregated from the rest of the international PokerStars playerpool (dot.com) in the same way Italy and Spain are. Instead French players play on dot.fr with a higher rake due to the higher cost PokerStars has of operating there.
Players living in e.g. UK or elsewhere in Europe can choose to play on PokerStars.fr as a second site in addition to the dot.com or dot.eu sites, by verifying their EU address and bank account with PokerStars.
Can I Play on PokerStars.fr if I'm not a French resident?
Yes, if you have a European bank account – you'll need to send in verification docs to PokerStars. Once verified you'll be able to play in the French playerpool on dot.fr as a second site, in addition to dot.com.
Online Poker in France – Do I Need a VPN?
No. There is currently no internet censorship applied to online gambling sites in France, whether lottery, sports betting, casino or poker related. As such a VPN is not necessary. However if you experience difficulties downloading poker clients in the future or while travelling outside France, follow the guidelines below:
Other countries in Europe's regulated online poker market may censor primary domains of poker rooms. While the poker site's domain may be down, preventing new players from downloading the client, those who have already downloaded the software can still log in and play unrestricted. The sites are based offshore (e.g. Malta / Gibraltar) with EU licenses – balances and cashouts remain safe despite one country's internet censorship.
If you are unable to download a poker client simply use a cheap VPN service such as StrongVPN or HideMyAss to do so. After install it is no longer necessary to use a VPN although some grinders continue to do so if playing over public wifi, for extra security. Site reps have confirmed on the forums that VPNs are not prohibited, with the exception of VPN use to play online from the US.
No Full Tilt Poker in France?
Online Poker France Legal Advice
PokerStars obtained the assets of Full Tilt Poker as part of its agreement with the US Department of Justice and re-opened the online room for real money play in some regulated EU countries on Nov 6th, 2012.
Unfortunately PokerStars has stated that they currently have no plans to seek licenses to operate Full Tilt Poker (FTP) in France, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Belgium or Estonia. Full Tilt no longer offers flat rakeback and has 1/10th the traffic of PokerStars.
- Back to Poker In the EU – Select Country
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Many players earn a living wage from rakeback alone. Use the calculator below to estimate the size of payments you'll get over a given period of time. The calculator will compute your expected daily, weekly, and monthly cash back depending on the stakes and tables you input.
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