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Bye bye France
Jun. 26th, 2010 04:09 pmNo, nothing to do with the World Cup. Pokerstars and Party Poker are going to bow to France's isolationist (and I feel possibly against EU rules) decision to allow only French online poker players to play against other French players. Ostensibly this is so that the planned 2% tax on each pot (so I read) will be easier to administer. Not because the French know that they are some of the worst poker players in the world.
It's all bad news, simply because, from an administrative point of view, it makes sense for countries to do this. And in the US it makes sense for individual states to do it.
The horrible possible conclusion will be all online poker players restricted to their own country and/or state. These things happen -- if a revenue opportunity appears, governments will usually find a way to exploit it. The continental Europeans are far worse than the Anglo-Saxon governments when it comes to this, and it's hardly a surprise that the first two movers have been Italy and France. Spain and Germany surely can't be far behind.
The online poker landscape will change dramatically if all of this follows through to its inevitable conclusion. Assuming that a revenue-maximization plan is in place (not the case in Italy, no surprise there) then France has got it about right. Invite the established offshore players to "go legal" and let them establish "segregated cells". But liquidity will be badly damaged. Even now I struggle to find enough games at my level, globally on any sites bar Pokerstars and Full Tilt.
On the plus side, the biggest sufferers would be the 24-table grinders, and they may be forced to go elsewhere to find a living. If I had to go up a couple of levels and two- or three-table against a smaller but generally weaker player pool (the UK players are not strong at full ring cash, on average), then I could live with it. But for multi-table tournaments, the implications are horrific.
If the UK brought in a 2% tax on every pot, either the poker sites would have to reduce their own take, or I'd probably have to look elsewhere. At an average of 80 hands won every day, of about $20 each, that would come to a personal tax of $32 a day, or, say, $10k a year, on an expected win of little more than $60 to $120. That would be a big hit.
++++++++++
It's all bad news, simply because, from an administrative point of view, it makes sense for countries to do this. And in the US it makes sense for individual states to do it.
The horrible possible conclusion will be all online poker players restricted to their own country and/or state. These things happen -- if a revenue opportunity appears, governments will usually find a way to exploit it. The continental Europeans are far worse than the Anglo-Saxon governments when it comes to this, and it's hardly a surprise that the first two movers have been Italy and France. Spain and Germany surely can't be far behind.
The online poker landscape will change dramatically if all of this follows through to its inevitable conclusion. Assuming that a revenue-maximization plan is in place (not the case in Italy, no surprise there) then France has got it about right. Invite the established offshore players to "go legal" and let them establish "segregated cells". But liquidity will be badly damaged. Even now I struggle to find enough games at my level, globally on any sites bar Pokerstars and Full Tilt.
On the plus side, the biggest sufferers would be the 24-table grinders, and they may be forced to go elsewhere to find a living. If I had to go up a couple of levels and two- or three-table against a smaller but generally weaker player pool (the UK players are not strong at full ring cash, on average), then I could live with it. But for multi-table tournaments, the implications are horrific.
If the UK brought in a 2% tax on every pot, either the poker sites would have to reduce their own take, or I'd probably have to look elsewhere. At an average of 80 hands won every day, of about $20 each, that would come to a personal tax of $32 a day, or, say, $10k a year, on an expected win of little more than $60 to $120. That would be a big hit.
++++++++++
