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The election of France’s ?rst socialist president in more than two decades has been hailed as a new dawn for the country, but the party’s strong anti-gambling rhetoric may see the French egaming sector’s widely reported troubles worsen. Robin Harrison reports
Stick or twist?
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am proud to have been capable of giving people hope again. We will succeed,” François Hollande declared in his victory speech on 6 May this year after attracting around 52% of the vote and defeating Nicolas Sarkozy to become France’s ?rst socialist President since 1981. However, despite the celebrations that greeted Hollande’s victory, the return to power of the Socialist Party may signal an end to the French egaming industry’s hopes of resolving the problems that have stunted the growth of the market since it opened in 2010. When Sarkozy’s centre-right government moved towards regulating the country’s online gambling industry, the Socialist Party represented its primary opposition, submitting an appeal to the French Constitutional Court to have the bill scrapped as unconstitutional. It argued that legalised egaming infringed on the French populace’s right to health protection, contravened the principle of equality in taxation, and disputed the formation of the regulatory body L’Autorité de Régulation des Jeux en Ligne (ARJEL). All such complaints were dismissed by the Court. Yet, now that Hollande has come to power, proclaiming that he will succeed where Sarkozy failed, there is every reason to suspect that he could look to overturn egaming legislation.
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Change is coming: Newly elected President of France François Hollande celebrates his victory
Damning reports That argument is made all the more compelling when looking back at statements the Socialist Party made during the licensing process. Condemning the government for chasing supposed egaming riches, it said “the interests of the people and the state disappear when faced with the power of money... The phenomenon of addiction can also develop through gambling, and create public health problems. The bill
legalising online gambling should have been rejected following the procedural motion tabled by the group Socialiste Radical et Citoyen (SRC), which could not succeed after the Right changed the time of the vote at the last minute.” It is important to remember that Hollande was voted in by an electorate tired of Sarkozy’s attempts to cut budgets and seduced by the new President’s anti-austerity agenda. Any moves to repeal or renegotiate perceived unjust legislation instigated by Sarkozy are likely to be widely supported. Still, at a time when austerity governments in Greece and Schleswig-Holstein suffered in the polls, Europe seems to be turning to ‘plan B’ and pursuing a policy of spending its way out of the economic downturn. Governments will need funds to do so, and France, despite being one of the richest countries in the Eurozone, is no exception. Hollande has admitted that his plans to return
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