(Bloomberg) -- France is considering legalizing online casinos and taxing them as the cash-strapped government seeks to reduce its ballooning deficit and fight illegal gambling.
“Those that exist, which are sometime operating illegally must either be closed or be regulated or have to contribute” to the national budget via taxes, Finance Minister Antoine Armand said on television station TF1 Tuesday.
The market of illegal online gaming such as roulette and blackjack is worth as much as €1.5 billion ($1.6 billion), a 2023 PricewaterhouseCoopers report for France’s national gambling authority found. By comparison, the country’s legal gambling market amounted to about €13 billion in 2022, including almost €3 billion of online games such as poker and horse-race and sports betting.
French lottery operator La Francaise des Jeux SA earlier this year agreed to buy Sweden’s Kindred Group Plc for about €2.5 billion, boosting its offering for online sports betting, casinos and other gaming segments as Europe’s market market consolidates.
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