19 December 2025
The french and european poker market has sufferent an harsh setback - the French National Assembly has rejected a proposal that intented to allow a shared online poker market with other regulated markets.
This decision caused some surprise, since it went against ARJEL's counsel (french online gambling authority), which has alerted many times to the necessity of shared online poker liquidity in order to ensure the survival of the market; ARJEL has also fought for lower taxes on the industry.
Razzy Hammadi, one of the leading opponents of shared liquidity, said that the numbers of the local poker market have been declining simply because poker was going out of style.
"I'm against because this resembles a monster that we're losing control of; and, to ensure it's growth, it has to be fed more and more market liquidity."
Benoît Hamon, Minister of Economy and Solidarity, also voted against - he stated that expanding the liquidity of the market would raise more dificulties in the fight against fraud and money laundering.
Damien Abad remembered the french politicians that they were going against ARJEL'S counsel, a counsel that they had asked for:
"You asked ARJEL's opinion... which clearly stated that we can maintain a regulated market with shared liquidity. But, in all truth, you don't want that."
The future of french online poker seems bleak; this decision happened in the same week that ARJEL's president, a big proponent of shared liquidity,
announced that he will resign the presidency of the french online gambling authority.
