PKR and Full Tilt Among Those Approved to Offer Poker in France

On Monday, the French gaming regulatory body, ARJEL (Autorité de Régulation des Jeux En Ligne, which translates to the Authority of Regulation of Online Games), issued nine new licenses to internet gambling sites. Full Tilt Poker, PKR, Ad Astra, FullFun, and CanalWin are just a few of the sites that will now be able to offer online gambling services to french players.

The Full Tilt entity which received the license is Rekop. Though the name is different the location remains the same. French players can download the software at FullTiltPoker.fr.

The PKR entity to receive their license is PKR France SAS. Predictably, players can download their poker software from PKR.fr.

Ad Astra (pokersubito.fr) and FullFun (pokerxtrem.fr) will serve as a part of the new 888/Microgaming French market joint venture.

CanalWin on the other hand will use its new license to offer sports betting as part of a joint venture with Ladbrook. Three other horse betting sites also received licenses they are Jeux 365, Geny Infos, and Zeturf France. Zeturf plans to join up with Unibet but Unibet is still in the process of trying to receive a license.

For nearly three years, the only online gambling sites approved in France were those owned by the state. After much debate, a new law was passed in April to open the market up to foreign operators. The list of ARJEL licensees has swelled to twenty-seven separate companies. While that may sound like plenty of variety some French players remain discontent especially since many of the sites have been forced to pass along added costs from the licensing to their players.

More licenses are expected to be issued in the coming months. Stay tuned for more news and updates.