Following on from the French humiliation for the early exit in the World cup, France has been dealt another hefty blow by the poker world and PokerStars in particular.

New laws passed in France regarding licenses for French poker sites, means that only companies with an ‘fr.com’ website address can allow poker players from France to play. PokerStars, this week announced its intentions to the poker community from France limiting them to only play poker games. This new law is aimed at poker companies, to lawfully tax players and the site for a percentage of its rake. PokerStars already runs a site for French only players ‘PokerStars.fr’ in which only players from that country can play.

The news from PokerStars has been greeted with some disappointment from the community, who feel the French players will be sadly missed. Not by virtue of their great play, more the fact they are deemed to be donk merchants of the highest order. Italy has already seen this law introduced in May 2009 and it has its own site as well ‘PokerStars.it.’ The new licenses must be sought through regulator ARJEL, who are a government authorised regulation body.

Many believe it is a push for a PokerStars.eu site, where only players from within the EU nations will be able to compete. Quite what that will achieve I’m not sure and I’m convinced many UK players will be reluctant to join up with their European counterparts. It is already being rumoured on some sites of a link-up between the Italian and French sites, the finer details of taxation per country only needing be ironed out. Also, many people believe it could spell the end of the Sunday major tournaments as we know them, the majors were regularly filled with French, Italian players and now losing both will certainly affect numbers.

French players, who recently tried to access the main PokerStars site, have been greeted with this message:                              

Dear French players,

Access to real money games will be blocked for players from France on PokerStars.COM at about 9:30 PM CET today, June 24, 2010. Players will be unregistered from the tournaments that start after that time.

All money in PokerStars accounts is 100% safe, and is available for withdrawal. You can choose to cashout now if you prefer.

You may also play on PokerStars.fr for play money now, which you can download from the www.pokerstars.fr web site. We will be running free tournaments on PokerStars.fr this weekend to win seats in live French Poker Series events.

We will provide more information in the near future.

We apologize for this inconvenience, which is mandated by law, and look forward to continuing to serve our French customers at PokerStars.fr.

Regards,
PokerStars Team

Full Tilt has not followed suit as of yet, but it can only be a matter of time with SportingBet, Cake Poker; Ipoker already limiting French players access to their main sites. It seems that poker is following World politics and soon only the US, ASIA and the UK will be able to play together. The rest of Europe will have their own sites, rake and tax rates. Watch Europe kill poker, like it did with the Euro. You have been warned!