Gambling in France
All forms of gambling are legal in France with the exception of online casino games and betting exchanges. The official name of the French Gambling Act making most forms of gambling legal in the country is the Law No 2010-476 from 12 May 2010. Before its introduction the lotteries, sports betting and horse racing were all a monopoly of the Française des Jeux FDJ or PariMutuelUrbain while casino games could be played in the physical casinos and gambling clubs that acquired concessions which had exclusive local rights.
From 2010 this situation has drastically changed when the French gambling market opened for national and international companies which increased the gambling offer. There are two regulatory bodies of the land based gambling activities: PMU (PariMutuelUrbain) and (FDJ) Française des Jeux. PMU administrates the horseracing while FDJ is responsible for betting games and lotteries in France.
Online Gambling in France
Online gambling, in France has not been regulated prior to 2010. With the Law No 2010-476 from 12 May 2010 all form of gambling with the exception of online casinos and betting exchanges became legal and are regulated by the L’ARJEL (Autorite de regulation des jeuxenligne), an official body formed with the introduction of the French Gambling Act to regulate the industry.
As of January 2017 there are three types of licenses that can be acquired for conducting online gambling activities in France: for online sports betting (live betting, pool betting and fixed odds betting), for online horse race betting (pool betting) and for online poker games (Texas Hold'em and Omaha Poker 4)