GG Online Poker

I am not one to closely follow the world of poker news and gossip, but this story is both important and interesting enough to share.

Earlier this summer France’s government passed regulation that forces French players  to play on .fr sites only, and taxes each pot at 2%. This law essentially prevents French players from playing against players from outside of France, and forces operators to increase rake. Pokerstars.fr upped their cash game rake to 7.7% (from 5%), leaving it’s players in disgust.

Unfortunately for winning poker players across the globe, the French government has taken note of the millions of euros being donked out of their economy by their poker-playing citizens and have taken action.

To their credit, French players banded together and organized a ‘poker strike’ with hundreds of players sitting down at tables without being dealt in, effectively blocking all play on the site. Pokerstars.fr was forced to listen, and rolled back their rake increase to 6.67% and sharing part of the burden of the new task.

So what’s the moral of the story. As Scottish poker blogger Daleroxxu put it:

And for people all around the world who think this doesn’t concern them just because they don’t live in France, be very concerned because your country could be next. Everyone still keen on USA regulating online gaming?