Transcript « Controlled Opening » of the French Market THE FRENCH ONLINE GAMBLING REGULATION BILL SPORTS BETTING HORSE RACING BETTING POKER Pierre Bruneau - International Relations Director -

« Controlled Opening »
of the French Market
THE FRENCH ONLINE GAMBLING
REGULATION BILL
SPORTS BETTING
HORSE RACING BETTING
POKER
Pierre Bruneau - International Relations Director - Française des jeux
THE FRENCH ONLINE GAMBLING BILL : Spring
2010
INTERNET GAMING
3 CATEGORIES OF GAMES
opened to competition
SPORTS
BETTING
HORSE
BETTING
POKER
PRESENT SITUATION OF GAMBLING IN FRANCE
General Prohibition (by 3 acts of Parliament)
Legal Exceptions
1
1
Gambling
clubs
(cercles)
Casino games
in physical
casinos
« Jeux de
cercle »
including
Poker
Casino table
games
Poker
Slot machines
Gross Product ~2.600 M€
2
2
3
Lotteries
Sports betting
(pool &
fixed-odds)
Horse racing
betting
(pool only)
FDJ
FDJ
Offline &
Online
lotteries
Offline & Online
sportsbetting
(fixed odds & tote)
PMU
Offline & Online
horse racing
Betting (tote)
stakes ~10.000 M€
Few charity &
Promotional
lotteries
stakes ~9.500 M€
MONOPOLIES
• 25.000 sites offering illegal gambling
• 20 % in French
• 75 % of stakes on Internet from France are registered on illegal sites
THE EXISTING REGULATION AUTHORITIES
HOME AFFAIRS
MINISTRY
« Jeux de
cercle »
including
Poker
Casino table
games
Poker
Slot machines
MINISTRY OF BUDGET
FDJ
Offline &
Online
lotteries
FDJ
Offline & Online
sportsbetting
(fixed odds &
tote)
AGRICULTURE
MINISTRY
&
MINISTRY of
BUDGET
PMU
Offline & Online
horse racing
Betting (tote)
TODAY MANY GAMES ARE PROHIBITED
♠ No online casinos
♠ No slot machines outside casinos
♠ No permanent charity lotteries
♠ No commercial bingo halls (except small charity bingo establishments)
♠ No live betting
♠ No exchange betting
&
No spread betting
♠ No betting other than sports betting and horse racing betting
♠ No promotional lotteries with an obligation to buy a product or a service
CONSEQUENCES OF THE DEVELOPMENT
OF ILLEGAL INTERNET GAMBLING
♦ French gambling regulations are challenged by the European
Commission which opened infringement proceedings against France
because of its sports betting and horse racing betting regulations
♦ Consequences of uneffective public control over illegal
internet gambling :
♠ prohibition of gambling for minors not guaranteed
♠ fight against gambling addiction suffers
♠ no protection of players against risks
(cheating, fraud, etc…)
♠ ethics of sports and horse racing not properly protected
♠ funding of good causes by on line illegal sites not ensured
(except LFDJ & PMU)
♠ unfair competition between legal operators paying taxes
and illegal operators
PURPOSES OF THE BILL
♥ Not a financial purpose :
-
fight against addiction
protection of minors
fight against fraud and crime
integrity of gambling
♥ Objectives
♦ Organize a public control of gambling in order to channel it
♦ Open to competition under strict public control through
national licences
♥ Open to competition Internet gambling where illegal activity
is developed
♥ Open to competition the 3 sectors , most popular and not the
addictive if properly regulated:
POKER
SPORTS BETTING
HORSE RACING BETTING
MANY GAMES WILL REMAIN PROHIBITED
♠ No online casinos
♠ No slot machines outside casinos
♠ No permanent charity lotteries
♠ No commercial bingo halls (except small charity bingos establishments)
♠ No spread betting
♠ No betting other than sports betting and horse racing betting
♠ No promotional lotteries with obligation to buy a product or
service
THE FUTURE SITUATION (expected June 1st, 2010)
General Prohibition
Legal Exceptions
1
Gambling
clubs
(cercles)
« Jeux de
cercle »
including
Poker
Casino games
in physical
casinos
Online
Games of
Chance
Casino table
games
Poker
Lotteries
FDJ
Online
Poker
Licensees
FDJ
Offline &
Online
lotteries
Slot machines
No opening for online slot
machines and table
games such as
roulette
Monopolies
Open to
competition
Sports betting
(pool &
fixed-odds)
5 years
License
type 1
Offline
sportsbetting
(fixed
odds &
tote)
Online
sportsbetting
(fixed odds
& tote)
Licensees
Small charity
& promotional
lotteries
including live betting
No exchange betting
No spread betting
Betting on actual competitions
and actual results
5 years
License
type 2
Horse racing
betting
(pool only)
PMU
Offline
horse
racing
Betting
(tote)
Online
horse racing
betting (tote)
Licensees
5 years
License
type 3
Betting on actual
competitions and
actual results
FDJ SITUATION
AFTER THE VOTE OF THE ONLINE GAMBLING LAW
FDJ
Online
Poker
License
(in partnership
with Barrière)
Offline &
Online
lottery
Offline
sports
betting
Online
sports
betting
monopoly
(fixed odds &
tote)
monopoly
(fixed odds &
tote) License
Monopolies
Open to
competition
Open to
competition
1-ARJEL: Autorité de Régulation des Jeux En Ligne
Regulatory Authority for Online Gambling
= independent Regulatory Authority for Online Gambling,
specially created to regulate Internet gambling open to competition
(=> not for online lotteries of LFDJ)
ARJEL MISSIONS :
♦ establish the specifications
♦ grant 5 year licences to operators compliant with specifications
♦ homologate technical platforms
♦ verify operator compliance with technical standards and other
specs
♦ active role in the detection and fight against illegal sites
♦ cancel license when required
♦ take part in the fight against illegal sites
SET UP OF 2 REGULATORY BODIES
1/ ARJEL
Regulatory Authority
for Online Gambling
2/ C J C
Advisory Gambling
Committee
THE SPECIFICATIONS
•
•
•
•
Bill provides the general characteristics. Details by decrees.
General clauses applying to any type of gambling or betting:
– Protection of vulnerable persons and prevention of addictive
behaviors
– Transparency and financial soundness of operators
– Regularity of the game
– Reliability and traceability of data involved
– Fight against fraud and money laundering
– Obligation to be established in Europe
– Headquarters outside the French list of fiscal paradises
– Access to technical and financial data for compliance
verification
Specific clauses, depending on the characteristics of each type of
licence (horse racing betting, sportsbetting, poker)
– Sportsbetting only on real sport events and for given types of
bets
– Horse racing betting only on authorized races
– Poker: liquidity restricted to players accessing a dedicated “.fr”
site
Any kind of payment including prepaid cards & PSP such as paypal
A STRICT CONTROL OF GAMING PRACTICES
Operators will be required to respect the following
obligations :
♦ Operators must have separate accounting for their
activities on the French territory
♦ Players must have a bank account in Europe
♦ No anonymous means of payment
♦ Operators must have a permanent correspondent in France
♦ Operators must be certified by a recognized organization
♦ Website in . fr
♦ Owners, managers, staff of an operator
cannot play on their website
GAMBLING MODERATORS
The Specifications will contain many moderators, designed to
protect the players from gambling addiction :
♦ Limitation of stakes
♦ Limitation of the monies in the player’s account
♦ Limitation of the player’s account balance
♦ Automatic payment of winnings exceeding a certain amount
to the player’s bank account
♦ Indication of the time spent playing (clock)
♦ Indication of the losses during the game session
♦ Possibility of auto exclusion of the player
♦ Application to online gambling of the banning procedure
already used in casinos
2- CCJ : Comité Consultatif des Jeux
Advisory Gambling Committee
An Advisory Gambling Committee* will be created to ensure a
policy of Responsible Gambling in France
♣ a unique "moral" authority focused on responsible gambling for all
gambling activities in France, both online and offline. It will
strengthen the responsible gambling policy and guarantee its
coherence (The chairman of ARJEL will be a member of the CCJ)
♣ have the means to conduct all the necessary studies to assess the
reality of gambling addiction in France
♣ judge the quality of the action plans of all operators concerning
responsible gambling and will give public opinions
♣ give opinions about the regulation of the monopolies and the
coherence of organisation of the gambling sector
FIGHT AGAINST ILLEGAL ONLINE GAMBLING
♠ Players not to be able to make money transfers to illegal sites
(today, only the payment of winnings is prohibited)
♠ Illegal Internet gambling be punished with 3 years of
imprisonment and a € 90 000 fine (7 years and € 200 000 if the
infraction is committed by an organised gang)
♠ Advertising for legal online gambling will be authorised in all
media
♠ Advertising for illegal gambling will be prohibited: minimum
fine €30000. The amount of the fine may reach 4 times the amount of
the advertising budget
♠ Blocking of bank transactions to illegal sites
♠ Blocking of access to illegal sites
FIGHT AGAINST GAMBLING ADDICTION
Part of the taxes on online gambling to be allocated to the
prevention of gambling addiction and to the fight against it
allocations to :
- the National Institute for Prevention and Health Education
(INPES)
- finance its activities of information, screening
and management
INTEGRITY OF SPORTING COMPETITIONS
Integrity of the competitions to be better protected than today
by:
♦ limitation of the types of bets
♦ fight against illegal sites with tools not used so far
♦ rights granted to sport event organizers :
● an involvement in the decision making process:
they will be involved in the definition of the types of bets and the
events on which betting is proposed
the operators will have to take into account their requirements for
the protection of the ethics and image of the competitions
● a right of property:
they will conclude non exclusive agreements with the operators
This will be the end of the current situation where the
major competitions are used as betting supports
without any possibility for the organizers to intervene
FUNDING OF SPORTS
Sports will benefit from a double financing :
1) For amateur and high level sports
Sports betting operators will pay 1,3% of the stakes to the
National Center for the Development of Sport (CNDS)
CNDS is a public institution whose mission is to fund the development of sport for
everybody, to participate in the financing of the construction and renovation of sports
facilities and to help finance operations of the National Olympic Sports Committee
(CNOSF) and the French Paralympic Committee.
2) For professional sports
♦ Sponsorship to be authorized
if conflicts of interest avoided
♦ Signing of non exclusive agreements
concerning the right of property of the sport event organizers
FUNDING OF HORSE BREEDING
♦ Now : funded only through the PMU
♦ Future law : will benefit from all the horse racing bettings
- All the operators must contribute to the financing of the sector
- through a fee for services rendered fixed at a rate of 8% on stakes
TAXATION
♦ Basis of taxation = Stakes
and not the Gross Product
(wagers minus payout)
It is a legal requirement : only stakes may be taxed in France ; the gross
product is taxed only in the country of establishment of the operators
♦ The tax rate = identical for online and offline sports
betting and horse race betting operations open to
competition
The tax rate (including the levy for social security) will be :
♦ 7,5% for sports betting and horse racing betting
♦ 2% for poker with a maximum of 1 € per deal
LIMITATION OF THE PAYOUT
♦Payout to be limited to a % of the stakes
♦Common Cap for sports betting and horse racing betting
♦Cap to be fixed by decree between 75% or 85% of stakes
Why cap the payout ?
♦ To maintain the present French gambling policy :
- PMU limited to an average of 78%
- LFDJ limited to an average of 75% for sports betting
♦ The cap limits amount and frequency of gambling
♦ The cap also reduces the interest of money laundering
ALLOCATIONS TO GOOD CAUSES
3 elements:
♥ 1% of the Sports Betting stakes to be paid to the
National Center for the Development of Sport
(CNDS)
♥ A part of the 7,5% tax on Sports Betting
and horse racing betting to be used
to finance the fight against gambling addiction
(information, screening and management)
via the INPES
♥ A part of the 2% tax on Poker will be used
to finance the renovation of historic buildings
through the Center of National Monuments
LFDJ PRO ACTIVE STRATEGY FOR LEADERSHIP
Enhancements to be ready to compete
♦ Games Development
1/ Sports Betting
OnLine
Physical Network
2/ Poker
OnLine
♦ Branding Policy
♦ Partnerships with Federations & Media
BRANDING POLICY
♦ Redefine global architecture of brands
♦ Corporate :
distinction between:
- Company Institutionnal Identity
- Commercial Umbrella Global Lottery Brand
♦ New online Umbrella Brands for competitive field
BRANDING ARCHITECTURE
Institutionnal
Corporate
Commercial
Umbrella Brand
Draw Games Umbrella Brand
Brands
Category
NEW !
Sports Betting
Brand
Competition
Poker Brand
NEW !
Commercial Umbrella Brand
Point of Sale Material
E-mailing
GAMES DEVELOPMENT
1/ SPORTS BETTING
● Pari mutual games
- enhancements of games portfolio
- simplification for easier accessibility
• games
• slips
- more matches on lists to bet on
● Oddsets
- more matches , more sports , formulas
- be ready for live betting
2/ POKER ONLINE : be ready for time to market
NEW RETAIL NETWORK POLICY
●SEGMENTATION FOR SPORTS BETTING
● based on past efficiency, motivation, potential
● 2 clusters : High & Lower
● TRAINING for OUTLETS on Betting Games
● EQUIPMENTS TO FACILITATE SELLING
♦ printers for lists of matches
♦merchandising devoted to sports betting
PARTNERSHIPS FEDERATIONS & MEDIA
MEDIA
●RADIO
●DAILIES NEWSPAPERS
● TV Broadcasted Sports Programs
NATIONAL FEDERATIONS of Sports
A REAL JUMP TO MAKE
BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS TO BE READY
BUT….. DETERMINED TO BE
THANK YOU
THE
WINNER