Another novelty it may request Bercy blocking transactions

The "draft Act on openness to competition and the regulation of the sector of games and gambling online" was significantly amended at the end of the preparatory work for the National Assembly. The text, examined in the evening and the night of Tuesday to Wednesday by the commission of the National Assembly Finances - before back - in the presence of the Minister of the Budget, Eric Woerth and rapporteurs of commissions of the Economic Affairs and law - seized for opinion - commission was modified in three major areas: the powers of the regulatory authority of (Arjel) online games, taxation and, finally, the fight against addiction. "There are a lot of changes but the overall balance is respected," observed the rapporteur of the commission of the Finances, Member of UMP Jean-François Lamour.

The role of the Arjel is thus strengthened in the fight against illegal sites with implementing its provision of "cyberpatrouilleurs" of the Ministry of the Interior as well as customs. In addition, the regulatory authority is assigned the possibility of a direct injunction to "host" of the illegal sites, while the original text provided for seizure of the judge hearing the application. Another novelty, it may request Bercy blocking transactions.

On the other hand, and the response of the France to the Commission detailed opinion on the draft law, taking account of the controls and approvals obtained in another State member of the Union is well specified in applications for the licensing, which means not automatic candidates operators award.

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In the field of taxation, it should be noted the improvement of the funding of amateur sport with raising the rate of levy, 1 initially to 1.8, and this in three years: 1.3 in 2010, 1.5 in 2011 and 1.8 in 2012. Eventually, he is therefore aligned with that for the physical network of the French (JDF) games with a notable difference, the absence of a cap (it amounted to 163 million euros in 2008 for the JDF network).

In addition, introduced 2 levy rate for chaque implementation in online poker is capped at 1 euro "pot", knowing that there are approximately 120 data per hour on average, the aim of rendre the more competitive game found abroad practices. In parallel, the use of tax revenues from online poker has been amended to support municipalities with a casino, and which could be undermined by the rise of games online: like what is already provided for the financing of heritage, they will be allocated 15 of the collected money, but the envelope is capped at 10 million. A similar device was also adopted for the Commons with a racetrack with, again, an envelope of 10 million, with a ceiling of 700,000 euros by city.

Protection of players

In the fight against addiction, it was decided to double to 10 million, the amount to allocate the national Institute for prevention and health education, to finance the specialized centres. Another important novelty: the establishment of a national telephone number. Protection of players is also an important clarification, Bill stating now that they will have knowledge of the amount of their potential loss. Similarly, and after a long debate, has clarified the scope of the rights of exploitation for commercial purposes have sportifs event organizers.

But there is no doubt that, in this area, as for many others, the Bill on the games online, which will be considered late September - early October by the Assembly, will be a sports debate.

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